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By LAMAR THAMES

I have been a Jacksonville Jaguar season-ticket holder since the beginning. Until this year. Try as I might, I just couldn’t bring myself to sign up for another season. It just wasn’t in the cards.

Can Tim Tebow save the Jaguar franchise? It is a big responsibility, but I think he can do it.

Or should I say, the budget.

I’m sure you have heard of a little thing called the Great Recession? Well, I am one of the victims of it, going on almost a year now. The $700 tab for a pair of tickets for my wife and I was just a bit too steep for our financial portfolio. I know, we could get a four-pack or the new thing they are calling the flex pack, but we have passed on it for now.

I am sure that we will attend some of the games, but I just don’t want to invest several hundred dollars in tickets right now since one source of our family income  — unemployment checks — will be drying up soon. I would rather keep that money in an income-producing vehicle for the time being until one of two things happens: 1) I get a job, or 2) I win the lottery. (The odds of the latter happening are probably greater than the former, if only I would buy a ticket.

Anyway, I feel really bad about not renewing our season tickets. Especially since I keep getting emails from Jaguar owner Wayne Weaver telling me how much he wants me back.  I hate to disappoint him like this, but the reality is that these are tough times. Maybe next year.

Meanwhile, I know that Weaver and the Jaguars are going through tough financial times of their own and that if they don’t start selling more tickets, a move to another city is a possibility (despite repeated denials from Weaver.)

I have a couple of ideas that would help forestall a move. Hear me out because this could take some time.

First, if the Jags can afford to offer discount ticket packages, why can’t they also offer single-game tickets at the same per-ticket price, $40? If they would, I think my wife and I would guy single-game tickets for more than half the games and we would buy them early in the week so that they would help count toward lifting the blackout. I am sure I am not alone in that assessment either. I bet a lot of other former ticket-holders are starting to have withdrawal symptoms as well and are dreading the week of the first blacked-out home game. I have to tell you I am having problems dealing with not being able to see a home game, either in person or on television.

How about it, Wayne? How about reducing single-game ticket prices, too?

OK, here goes. The other thing the Jags can do to boost ticket sales and guarantee home sellouts for at least a decade is — wait for it — draft Tim Tebow.

There I said it. And I am dead serious. I mean, what college football player has ever had the kind of adoration and sheer hero-worship in the Northeast Florida area than Tebow? Think of the possibilities.

I don’t think the Jaguars can afford not to draft Tebow. He would be the crowning touch to the effort the Jags started this year to  draft players with character who put the team first. What more could ask for than a Christian missionary who hoisted an entire team on his shoulders last year and drove them through sheer will to the national championship?

Just a hint, Wayne. I have three grandsons who are Tebow disciples (in the football sense.) Look at the base that you will be building for the future that will ensure the Jaguars remain in Jacksonville or a long, long time. I will never say for forever because anything is possible.

I am not sure how good of an NFL quarterback Tim Tebow will become but one thing is certain: He will be a whole lot more productive and team-oriented at whatever position he plays than two recent high draft pickets. Anyone remember Reggie Williams and Matt Jones? You don’t think he will bring more to a team than those two combined? To me it is a no-brainer.

If the Jags don’t think Tebow will put fans in the seats, they are badly mistaken. As much as Tebow will work to make the team better, I am sure he will also be a big ticket-selling asset. He will be the best ambassador the Jaguars, and for that matter, the NFL has ever had. And who would be a better role model to put before the fans than a player who practices what he preachers, so to speak. Much better than most of the lunkheads the Jaguars have drafted in the past.

OK, I will get off my high horse for the time being. Your thoughts?