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Let me make two things perfectly clear:
#1: I HATE University of Florida football. I can’t think of any circumstance where I could ever root for them (University of Florida vs. Darth Vader & the Death Star? Goooooooooo Vader!)
#2: I mostly hate the Denver Broncos. It is not the same level of sports-hate that I level @UF, but it is sports-hate none the less.
These two life-guiding principles are why Tim Tebow is making me mad.
I like Tim Tebow.
I like Tim Tebow on many levels. Obviously because of his faith and uncompromising witness for Jesus, because he is a product of homeschooling, and he just keeps winning even though all the commentators think he sucks as a quarterback and say as much on the radio, during interviews, at half times, in print, when they talk to the guy next to them standing at the urinal. Tebow never reacts negatively. He stays humble. He doesn’t get irritated. He just keeps winning. And because of all that, he has forced me to root for an ex-Gator (I just threw-up in my mouth a little) and a current Bronco (I’m getting a headache.)
Here is a quote from former Denver Quarterback Jake Plummer:
"Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he'd just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he's a winner and I respect that about him," said Plummer. "I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I'll like him a little better. I don't hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff.”
Here is Tim Tebow’s response to the Plummer quote in an ESPN interview with Skip Bayless (who is a weasel by the way):
"If you're married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity?
"And that's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get an opportunity to tell him that I love him or given an opportunity to shout him out on national TV, I'm gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with him that I want to give him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity. And then right after I give him the honor and glory, I always try to give my teammates the honor and glory.
"And that's how it works because Christ comes first in my life, and then my family, and then my teammates. I respect Jake's opinion, and I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner. But I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, he is due for it."
“I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner?” Do you think Jake Plummer popped a jugular when he read that quote? I hope he did.
See what I mean? MADDENING!
Now I’m on-board for Broncos to the Super Bowl and Tebow for League MVP.
Below is a piece by Peter King from Sports Illustrated about Tebow. Pay particular attention to the final three paragraphs.
Tim Tebow.
An aside to Bronco Nation: Still furious at the McDaniels Era? He is, after all, the man who drafted the best story in sports. Shoot, and maybe the best story overall.
After another Sunday of yelling at the Denver game on one of the TVs in the NBC viewing room -- believe me, it's a weekly occurrence -- the digestion process began. What exactly are we watching here, other than the nuttiest story in recent sports history? Tebow has started seven games this year. The Broncos were blown out in one, by Detroit. They never trailed in beating Kansas City. In the other five, well, here's what happened:
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As the Denver manager of media information, Patrick Smyth, said to me while I waited for Tebow to come to the phone after the game, "This is routine.''
Denver, three games out of first place when Tebow took the starting job in Week 7, now leads the AFC West with a 7-5 record by virtue of a tiebreaker edge over 7-5 Oakland -- because the Tebow-led Broncos scored the last 24 points in the win at Oakland on Nov. 6.
I spoke with Tebow, who is the most polite interview in NFL history while at the same time spilling zero beans, after the game. I asked him if he felt what was going on around the country right now, with people from everywhere zoned in on his incredible, quirky, starry and winning run. "You know, I'm not sure,'' he said. "I know the Lord has blessed me and blessed our team. Some of what is said out there can be motivating to me. But every game is the opportunity for me to live my dream of being an NFL player. I think we'd all rather be a head 15 or 20 in the fourth quarter. But the feel on the sideline, trusting each other and knowing we can do it every week, has been a special part of this team.''
"We feel it a little bit,'' Champ Bailey told me, "but the thing is, we're not caught up in it. We just do it. At crunch time, for some reason, and it's so hard to explain, nobody bats an eye. We're used to it. We love coming back.''
This game seemed different. Three or four times, Tebow threw over the Vikings' leaky (to put it mildly) cover-two zone, and he finished with a much better passing day (10 of 15 for 202 yards) than usual. "We had the opportunity to go downfield,'' he said. "I felt we did some good things in the passing game.''
Before I let Tebow go, I asked him if anyone after the game -- coaches, players, execs -- had said anything memorable to him. "Everybody was happy,'' he said, "but I'll tell you one thing that happened during the week that I remember ... ''
Good, I thought. John Fox, maybe, sidling up to him and saying something sportingly profound like, "Son, we're going to ride that left arm and those legs to the Super Bowl.''
" ... I had an opportunity to talk with a kid named Blake Appleton, from Florida, on Thursday. He's a leukemia patient who's just been moved to hospice. And after the game, when I was being interviewed on TV, I got to say his name. That's what I'm proud of today. I let him know people cared about him. I let him know God has a plan for him."
And that was the end of the Tebow interview. He had to rush to get on the bus to the airport. Except ...
"Have a good day, Mr. King. And God bless you."
Classic
Chris
To learn more about Tim Tebow: http://www.timtebow.com/
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