AND NOW... FOR SOMETHING THAT IS RELATED BUT MAY SEEM NOT TO BE...

A FEW WORDS ON THE TIM TEBOW PHENOMENON

I like Tim Tebow.  Always have, even while he played at the University of Florida.  This does not mean that I like Florida or ever wanted them to win at ANYTHING much less football, but I did like Tim Tebow.

There was always something special about him.  As much as he won in college, his humility was always legitimate.  When Florida lost Ole Miss in 2008 and made his famous post-game declaration, I have to admit that I was moved by his words.  And I recall how the Gators finished that season, as National Champions and a team that looked like they were on a mission.

Despite his college successes, where Tim would go in the NFL draft in 2009 drew a lot of speculation.  Many observers, a lot of whom were in a position that actually mattered and wasn’t stuffed in the basement of their Mother’s house with a high-speed connection to the internet to make their pontifications, thought that he was a risky pick, maybe a 2^nd or even a 3^rd round draft choice at best.  So when he was drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos, it raised a lot of eyebrows around the NFL, because it meant that the organization was going to make a certain commitment to developing him into a big time player.

The many questions about his skill set are valid and even now I think a casual observer can see why they persist.  Even Tim himself will admit that they are true.  Recently, team president andHall-of-Fame quarterback John Elway said that the Broncos still don’t have the quarterback to lead them to a championship on their roster.

Ouch. But I suspect that does not bother Tim Tebow in the least.  Maybe it motivates him to work harder on his weaknesses, but somehow I don’t think it does, at least not in a tangible sense.  Like he said in his speech in college  where he promised that “you would not see another player play harder therest of the season…”, I think what drives Tim is truly special and what makes a person ‘special’ to other tends to be harder to quantify.  And because of this “specialness” that makes up a big part of Tim’s skill set is an intangible, a lot of cynics discount the effect that he has on the team as a coincidence.

                

Sure, I would love if KT or Lexxie were to marry Tim Tebow, why wouldn’t I?  I know they would not endup being an enabler to a monster as the wife of Bernie Fine became, that is forsure!  In fact, I think it would be more likely that they would be considerably closer to living a life where they come a lot closer to fulfilling their potential as a human being as they may have otherwise!  I really believe that.  I wish I played with and for, yes for, Tim Tebow!

Okay, a little tangential but hey, if you have read this blog for any length of time, I think you’d understand!  Anywho, the truth about Tim Tebow is that his is, quite simply, a leader of men.  Sunday morning there were several stories on pregame shows about what is going on in Denver.  The way that they have been winning football games goes against the grain… in fact, their victories hark back to an era has more in common with war bonds and bobby socks than they do with how current football is played.  But watching his teammates describe what is going on in their locker room and what they feel when they are out on the field playing, I don’t see how anyone could be cynical about what THE PLAYERS believe.

It could be seen in their eyes as well as heard in their voices.  If there was any “Tebow flavored Kool-Aid© being offered in Denver that pretty much everyone on the team had drank from it.  It made me think about how it contrasted with the jaundiced image that many pro athletes are seen, that they are self-centered and arrogant, thinking only of ‘what someone can do to make me look better’ like Terrell Owens.  As much as they think of themselves out there on the field, it was evident that they also play for something much larger than themselves and their personal motivations.

That is what it means to be a leader.  When you can inspire others through your own personal convictions and actions, you get to be called a leader.  When you have others willing to sacrifice because of your personal example, you get to be called a leader.  When you can humble yourself to rank and file, showing yourself willing to do whatever it takes to show that you are a member of the team, you get to be called a leader.

What I think has been taking place in Denver over the past two seasons is that the players on that team saw the heralded Tim Tebow come in and be something more than a caricature.  Sure, his super-Christian status and captaincy on ‘the God Squad’ has something to do with the cynicism around Tim Tebow.  When his deficiencies as a player are factored in, the “haterade” starts flowing.  But when you see the cat who once said “that you will see no player work harder” actually WORK HARDER than anyone that they have prolly ever seen, that has to have an effect on a person.

Now there are some things that have fallen into place that are in Tim’s favor.  One, there are a couple of high character guys that are counted among the leadership in the locker room in Denver.  Champ Bailey on defense and Willis McGahee on offense don’t go for that weak sh*t, so once they got behind Tebow, everyone else on the team really did not have much choice.  And maybe the schedule has been kind to the Broncos, having really only played one team that could exploit their collective flaws, the Detroit Lions.  And in many ways I think that game has done more to prove the impact that Tebow has had on the team.

See, it would have been easy for the Broncos to have rolled up their tents and let their season continue to fritter away, getting earholed as they did against the Lions.  But instead, the next week they went out and beat the Raiders in Oakland.  I think that if their confidence in their quarterback was shaky, then it would have definitely showed up in that game.  Or, in any of their subsequent games, on the road and away from Tebow’s rabid home fans.  

COINCIDENCE OR NO…

Thing about the Broncos resurgence that is hanging around in the room like the proverbial elephant is whether or not any of Tebow’s intangible traits have had anything to do with it.  I don’t know what do other folks, particularly any “experts” may think but I know what I believe.  And even though I don’t think that I would ‘fit’ into the Tebow vision of an afterlife, I do know how a cat like him would fit into my current life.