Tim Tebow has been criticized for years about his quarterback ability, his arm and how he throws.

He will not accept anyone calling him a quitter or false.

The New York Jets backup quarterback insisted that he didn’t ask out of running the team’s wildcat plays last week, but acknowledged what he revealed in a meeting with coach Rex Ryan could have been misinterpreted as such.

”I never said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do anything or I will not do anything,”’ Tebow asserted. ”That wasn’t the talk at all. He knows that, and everybody on this team knows that. I’d never not do something if I was asked, and I think that’s what’s disappointing about the entire situation, people saying, ‘You quit,’ or, ‘You didn’t do this.’ It was not it at all.

”It was just me asking to get an opportunity to play the position I adore, which is quarterback. It was not me asking out of anything.”

Ryan chose to go with 3rd-stringer Greg McElroy over Tebow in the place of the benched Mark Sanchez for Sunday’s game against the Chargers. After hearing the stories, Tebow went to Ryan to talk things through and told him he would have liked to be ”a regular quarterback.”

”I was surely frustrated and disappointed,” Tebow related.

The news reported Sunday that Tebow had then asked out of the wildcat, and somebody with knowledge of the situation confirmed that to the press. But Tebow thinks it’s a situation in which he wishes he was ”more clear” when he initially chatted with Ryan.

Tebow realized that Ryan might have misinterpreted what he said when they met when he wasn’t in wildcat packages during practice Wednesday and Thursday, and then sat down with the coach to clear the air.

”I just asked for a chance to play quarterback and he definitely understood that,” Tebow claimed, ”and then, I went up to him again and reiterated that, ‘Hey, I should do anything for this team like I have all year.”’

While Ryan never confirmed or denied the statements, the coach asserted, ”If I might have asked Tim to play in anything, Tim would have gone into the game and done that.”

Tebow never played in the Jets’ 27-17 loss to the San Diego Chargers, as wide receiver Jeremy Kerley handled a lot of snaps in the wildcat package. NFL betting lines

More than anything else, Tebow asserted, he’s most disappointed by the attacks on his character and reputation in the last few days – adding that his Christmas ”wasn’t the best” because of all the talk about how he let his team down.

”When people talk about how you play football and how much, that’s one thing,” Tebow claimed. ”That actually doesn’t bother me. I think the only thing that’s been upsetting these last couple of days and frustrating is people saying, ‘Oh, you quit on your team or you’re not a good teammate.’

”For people to not know the situation and then start to bash your character and then say you’re a fake or you are a phony or you are a hypocrite, I think that’s what’s upsetting and that’s what’s frustrating. Your character is who you are as a man, and that is a load more important.”