Tebow Is Winning Me Over

Okay, so, as an LSU homer I couldn't like Tim coming out of college. I mean, you know, he's still the enemy or something. Oh! By the way, I'm not the cheerleader on the top of the pyramid, but I'm smart enough to know what he did as a QB in college wouldn't translate to the pro game. I wasn't Tebow when Tebow wasn't cool. I never was, right? And I'm not (or wasn't) alone.

So my common lament prior to the draft was, "Just say NO to Tebow". Don't draft him. Pick him up as a project player maybe, but I didn't see his worth as a top draft pick. Certainly not in the first, oh, five rounds or so. Much better to draft a kicker there, or a cleat cleaner. Save your franchise and just say no to Tebow.

And I was right. He is a terrible QB. There's no argument to the contrary. Tebow's numbers aren't that dissimilar to another high-draft fail who I think was in prison recently. Ryan Leaf, meet Tim Tebow, the guy who just let you off the hook...
How bad is Timmy? Oh he's really bad. He's been so bad even the talking heads have stopped making excuses for him. Pedestrian, which is a football term that more or less means 'you suck', is probably too kind. Anemic maybe, is a better word? Not really, since to be anemic means to lack vitality, force, or spirit. I don't think we could say that about Tim, especially the part about spirit.

So, what, then, do we call it? I mean, we're humans, so we have to label him somehow. Lets go with blessed. I think he'd like that anyway. Blessed it is.

So, what do you say about a QB who throws 6 completions in a game and wins? You call him blessed. How about one who regularly throws for less than a hundred yards a game in an era where average QBs easily average 250 or more and still wins while the 250 guys get their brains beat in? Blessed. First round draft money with his clear lack of understanding of the pro game? Blessed indeed.

I just got tired of all the hype. Every thing was and is Tebow. I can't turn on the NFL Network, or ESPN, or heck, even CNN, without getting a face full of Tebow. If I held a grudge because of silly college prejudice before, well now I'm really hating the guy. Now I'm hating because he is clearly the luckiest bastar..., er, most 'blessed' man on the planet. He's won a few, in miraculous fashion, and thanks to a pretty solid defense by the way, and then proceedes to lose what, three in a row to end the season and crawfish his way into the playoffs? Playoffs? Pla...wha...Playoffs? Yes...

Still, every time I click on the tube I get to hear Deon, Irvin, and Mooch doing their juvenile and oh by the way old-after-the-millionth-time-I-heard-it, "Teeeeeeee Bo. Whoaaaaaa Ohhhhhh."

I just threw up a little in my mouth typing that.

They won't stop. They're like kids in the back seat on a long road trip that find something funny and then beat it to death for the next 500 miles. By the time you get to the hotel not only is it NOT funny, but it makes you angry and you want to threaten your kids if they ever say that stupid thing again. So as soon as you turn your back they snicker and giggle their little 's off and say the stupid thing again under their breath. Grrrrrrrrrrr...

Teeeeeeee Bo. Whoaaaaaaa Ohhhhhh.

So after his season-ending loss and during this past week, prior to the wild card round, I decided to give Timmy another chance. Truth be known my dislike for poor Tim really had nothing at all to do with Tim. I hated the hype. I hated where he was drafted. I hated all the attention a sub-par QB was getting. And you're damn right I'm jealous of the money he's making because I know in my heart I could complete 6 passes a game. I owed it to him to allow him, potentially, into my inner circle on his own merits and to not deny him based on the hype (over-hype) of talking media-nozzles. So I cut him some slack and settled in to watch he and his Broncos be dismissed by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And then he won. Are you effing kidding me? Holy smoke on the effing water this ing guy. Get the outta here, right? He completes 10 passes. But he averaged 30 freakin yards a completion. Damn right his WRs had tons of RAC yards, but hey, is that Timmy's fault? Nope. Is it his fault the Steelers thought so little of him that they didn't feel the need to play a safety where a safety should have been on the first play of overtime? Heck no.

But it's what I saw and heard after the game that really flipped me over to the light. One of the NFL Network hotties interviewed Tim after the game - the Canadian one I think it was (not that there's anything wrong with that). What she basically said to him was, well, mean. What follows is not a direct quote, but it went something like this:

Reporter [her voice almost in a whisper - like she was embarrassed to be there or something]: So, Tim, you're pretty much the worst QB in the NFL, and you really sucked the last few weeks and your team lost as a direct result of that, and yet here you are, still mostly sucking by only completing 10 passes, beating a team you had no right to beat. How do you feel about that?

Tebow [whispering back in kind]: Hey. You know. First I just want to thank my savior the Lord Jesus Christ. It's really all about my team. The players around me are just the best. The coaches are amazing. I took their advice which just shows you how much I have to learn and how amazingly brilliant my coaches and my teammates are. I'm just really blessed.

Now that's not exactly how it went, but it's pretty damn close. Later I saw another reporter ask him essentially the same thing, in pretty much the same way, and Tebow gave the same answer. Praise the Lord. Coach and teammates are amazing. I'm blessed.

So I'm sitting on my couch thinking, you know, this kid doesn't just sound genuine. He really is. If you're a believer, a Christian I mean, then you are SUPPOSED to give praise and promote Jesus all day, every day, and just because most of us don't do that doesn't me we shouldn't. Tim does. Good for him. Most of us Christians call ourselves Christians but how often do we publicly give praise as we are certainly required? Even if you're a non-believer or if you worship Hollywood actresses like Zooey Deschanel (and who doesn't by the way) you have to recognize everyone's right to do it in their own way. You have to admire his devotion to the thing he believes right? Now that I think about it I'm probably going straight to hell. Tebow isn't.

And he gave every stinking last bit of praise to his team. Everybody from management to the guys making plays on the field. He ran around the stadium after the game giving high fives to the fans. He said he wanted them to feel like they were a part of it too. It, by the way, was one of the most amazing and unlikely overtime wins in the history of overtime wins. And he did it in a way that rang true. He's not just faking it. Trust me. I'm skeptical of my own damn preacher. I'm skeptical of the guy flying the plane, of my own damn mother. I mean I'm not gullible. I'm telling you Tim is sincere. I'd bet my left nut on it.

So maybe I'm not 100% Tebowed, but I'm coming around. Yeah, he's not very good, at least not yet, but he's got the "it" factor for sure. And he gives you, or at least he gives me, the impression that he'll do the work. He'll get better. He may in fact get a hell of a lot bette....no, let's say this instead: He's 'blessed' with the work ethic he needs to get better. Who doesn't like the underdog in America? Who doesn't love to see a guy overcome the odds and then be classy while he breaks records and does the unthinkable all the while shifting the praise to his coaches and his teammates even though you KNOW he wants to tell them all to go eat a great big **** burger?

Eh, you know what. That's the difference between me and Tebow. I'm the one who would want to tell them all to go eat a great big **** burger. In fact I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I'd tell them. But I'm going to say I don't think that's what Tim wants to say. It's probably not even crossing his mind to say something like that. It should. Jesus would cut him a break on this one. I'm sure of it.

As a Saints fan, I love Drew Brees for many of the same reasons I'm starting to like Tim Tebow. Stand up guy. Classy. Competitive. Deflects praise to his teammates. I don't see many 300 yards games in Tim's immediate future. I didn't figure he'd get one in his first ever playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers either.