Doug Finger/The Gainesville Sun, via Associated Press

Tim Tebow, shown with ESPN's Erin Andrews, will will now bring his vanilla rhetorical style to television, where he will be asked to be insightful and occasionally critical.

When he was introduced to the news media by ESPN as its newest analyst on Tuesday, Tim Tebow suggested through his remarks that he might be the nicest, politest, humblest person ever to hold a microphone.

His responses on a conference call were packed with unyielding positivity. Newly hired analysts are usually happy and upbeat. But Tebow was in a different stratosphere. He used "thank" or "thankful" 14 times. "Opportunity" was mentioned 15 times. In using "relationship" 14 times, he reflected only on good ones, past and present. He said "great" 27 times.

Responding to a question about whether he could be a critical analyst despite his relentlessly rosy outlook, he said: "Well, thank you for saying that I'm someone who's positive. I would love to continue to be someone who's positive but also be someone that is objective." He referred to all ESPN executives, men or women, as Mr. or Ms.

Tebow's remarks were similarly sunny nearly two years ago when he answered questions at a news conference introducing him as the Jets' backup quarterback, after he was acquired in a trade with the Denver Broncos. He was excited to be a Jet, excited at the opportunity to be a Jet, at playing for Coach Rex Ryan and at getting to know his new teammates. He was thankful to be a Jet and thanked his Broncos teammates and fans. He trumpeted his great relationship and friendship with the incumbent starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez, and said Sanchez was excited to have him around. He was, he said, honored and humbled to be there.

Now Tebow will bring this vanilla rhetorical style to television, where he will be asked to be insightful and occasionally critical. No one expects him to zing anyone or fire brickbats. If you hire Tebow, you take him at face value: He is an evangelical man with a buoyant disposition who won a Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Florida; he had a period of success as Denver's quarterback; and he was an afterthought as a Jet.

His broadcasting career will start Monday, when he appears on ESPN's programming leading up to that night's Bowl Championship Series national title game. But his primary role will start in late summer as an analyst for "SEC Nation," a weekly college football show that will air on the new, ESPN-owned SEC Network. Like ESPN's "College GameDay," "SEC Nation" will be broadcast from a different campus each Saturday morning.

As a former star in the Southeastern Conference, Tebow will probably be welcomed by Gator Nation. But fans of other SEC programs will certainly love him considerably less.

He might work best if he talks primarily about training and preparation, about how players feel before a major game, and about his specific experiences. But he will probably not excel at chastising players for academic failures or asking tough questions or calling for any coach's firing. His inoffensive style could help him avoid staking out controversial positions, but it could just as easily make him look like the odd man out on a network built on a power conference's tribal loyalties. He might want to study the durability of the former Miami quarterback Dan Marino as an analyst; Marino is popular but rarely ventures out on a limb.

"He lives, breathes and eats the game," Stephanie Druley, vice president for production, college networks, for ESPN, said of Tebow during the conference call. "That's what you look for in an analyst, and the best analysts teach somebody about the game, and I think Tim will do an excellent job with that."

She added, "I'm confident that he'll give opinions when it needs to be given."

Tebow will need to use details to inform his opinions. On the conference call, he deflected questions about why he wasn't pursuing a football career beyond the N.F.L., and others about when ESPN started pursuing him or whom he has studied as a commentator. He has a practiced, even deft, political way of occasionally giving nonanswers that allow him to discuss what's important to him.

When asked by a reporter to "take us through how you ended up with ESPN," Tebow said: "Well, I've had a great relationship with Mr. Skipper for a while and really got to know Mr. Wildhack through this process and just felt comfortable with them, and they understood my passion for the game or football, my love for being a quarterback and pursuing that." John Skipper is the president of ESPN, and John Wildhack is an executive vice president.

Joe Tessitore, who will be the host of the program, should not let Tebow get away with similar evasiveness.

But Tebow may only need to be Tebow for ESPN and the SEC Network to be pleased with him. ESPN has long been in the Tebow business, covering him regularly and, at times, relentlessly. He is seen as a special ratings attraction within the network.

And Tebow is clearly a child of ESPN. He recalled on Tuesday watching "GameDay" as a boy before heading out to play Pop Warner football. So it is no surprise that he is on ESPN's payroll now. The deal will also allow him to try to find work as an N.F.L. player. If he does, ESPN will almost certainly find a way to keep using him.