Tim Tebow saves Colorado's economy one jersey at a time

Photo by Michael Roberts

You might not be the first -- but you'll be an early adapter.

Days later, a visit to a Champs Sports outlet at Southwest Plaza Mall proved that the frenzy hasn't died down. Not only were store personnel touting the presence of Tebow togs with the homemade sign seen here, but they'd locked down their stock like no other gear for fear shoplifters would make off with these precious items.

Inside the outlet on Sunday, I checked the prominently displayed jerseys but didn't see a price tag. Why not? An employee explained that the jerseys had arrived via overnight deliver the previous afternoon and were put on display immediately -- and lucky thing, because five of them sold in just a few hours at $80 a pop. The employee was thrilled by this response, noting that the sales were helping the store -- always a good thing in this economy. While Southwest Plaza appears to be doing better than some Denver-area malls, with the vast majority of its storefronts filled, it isn't exactly overrun with customers these days.

As for the Tebow jerseys themselves, they were actually attached to the display rack with a heavy cable of the sort used in bike locks:

Photo by Michael Roberts

Tebow tie-ins dominate the Champs outlet; the shirts to the right are the ones wired in.

None of the other merchandise in the store that I saw was similarly cabled -- including old Marshall jerseys, which were indeed priced at 50 percent off. The employee explained that staffers didn't want to take any chances that someone might try walking off with a Tebow without paying.

He also put the phenomenon into perspective by pointing out that, despite all the excitement over the jerseys, Tebow hasn't thrown a pass for the Broncos in anything other than practice.

That's just as well. If he gets into a game and starts tossing picks, those jerseys may not be such hot commodities.