The Crystal Ball Nitpicking Tebow

On August 16^th 2010, Peter King of Sports Illustrated wrote in his Monday Morning Quarterback column about the “shaky” debut of Bronco rookie quarterback Tim Tebow. On the same day, Alex Marvez of Fox Sports spent an entire column picking apart Tebow’s debut, even titling the article, Tebow shows he's a work in progress.

Almost every rookie quarterback is a work in progress. It is the rare quarterback that can make a seemingly seamless transition from college to the NFL. Most have horrible rookie campaigns, much like Peyton Manning in his first season with Indianapolis in 1998. Some never see the field, their new teams content to let them ride the pine and gain knowledge while carefully monitoring their first timid steps into the NFL, see Carson Palmer and the 2003 Bengals. Those who have had stellar rookie campaigns, Ben Roethlisberger and the 2004 Steelers, Matt Ryan and the 2008 Falcons and Joe Flacco and the 2008 Ravens, had the benefit of established veterans, good coaching and excellent skill position players around them to help make their jobs that much easier and minimize their inevitable rookie gaffes.

But seemingly from the moment he finished playing his last collegiate down; Tim Tebow has been under the microscope. Not to be studied or awed, much like his days as a Gator, but more to be dissected, pulled apart and torn down. Comers from all angles have been nitpicking him apart in much the same way one might pull at a bothersome loose string. And I have been wondering ever since why.

When anyone starts in on their Tebow bashing, they usually start with the offense he ran in Florida, stating it was not a pro style offense and he would have trouble transitioning to the NFL. The man has shown a decent football acumen and at least average intelligence, I do not know why it would be difficult for him to learn something new. He’s young, just out of college, and most people that age no matter their profession are expected to be ready to learn new things, adapt to new situations and take on new challenges. Why should he be any different? And here’s a news flash, all rookies that get a chance at making an NFL squad are expected to learn a new system, a new way of training, new terminology, new cities, new facilities, new coaches, new styles new everything. He is not singular in this demand to learn something new.

And let’s be honest, even if a player attended a school that ran a pro style offense that ran plays right out of an NFL playbook, he’s not playing in a pro style offense. He’s playing in a college offense that runs pro style plays. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that any player who once thrived in a collegiate pro style offense would tell you the difference between the two after two weeks of NFL training camp.

The next argument I always hear is how bad his mechanics are. How he throws the ball all wrong, hangs onto it too long, his windup is terrible and his footwork is atrocious. These things combined will cause him to spend years on the bench trying to correct them, if that’s even possible, and most likely relegate him to a career back up and a draft bust. This argument continues despite Tebow working his tail off to correct these flaws in his game before and after the NFL draft. Apparently actions speak softer than expert opinions and his inability to learn a new offense means he’s unable of changing how he plays as well. You’d think this guy had the intelligence level of Jethro Clampett and not a college educated man.

The Denver Broncos and head coach Josh McDaniels decided the upside of Tim Tebow was far greater than the perceived negative qualities and drafted him in the first round. With the shocked, stunned and apoplectic reactions of the draft commentators, you would have thought they re-drafted Ryan Leaf. They fell all over themselves stating how it was a wasted pick, they picked him too high, and he’ll never be worth a first round pick and on and on.

The thing that kills me is many of these arguments against him were made by the same people who fell all over themselves praising him in his college heyday. How can one man go from such an exulted high to nothing more than a waiver wire pickup status so fast?

But I ask again, why? What is it about him that causes people to just want to tear him down? Was it his constant winning at Florida? His collegiate success as a player and student? His on and off the field leadership? His willingness to sacrifice his body, and potential pro career, for one more yard and benefit of the team? His ability to rock a monk haircut? Why are people so willing and almost eager to pick apart Tim Tebow?

My one and only guess is that people have trouble with Tim Tebow’s faith. Now this is not a condemnation of those who work to pick Tebow apart as godless hellions that lack their own faith or to elevate Tebow to a status as some sort of prophet. I’m sure there are many out there who have their own beliefs and plenty of faith that happily take pot shots at Tim Tebow.

However, I think Tebow’s willingness and openness with his beliefs and his faith make some people uncomfortable, for reasons only known to them. Perhaps they are lax in their beliefs, or question their faith, or perhaps they do not believe in anything and just dislike having God being brought into a conversation when all they really want to hear is completions and touchdowns. But in our overly litigious world you cannot bust a guy for sharing his beliefs or his spirituality for fear of repressing someone’s freedom of speech and religion and getting the ACLU all worked up. And no matter how uncomfortable those professions of faith may make someone, they withhold judgment on the character and spirituality of the man and instead turn to overly critiquing his game and his talents as that’s easier to justify tearing apart than how the man may pray or how he feels on the right to life issues.

I understand there is a time and a place for everything and espousing your beliefs in the Almighty may not be what most people want to hear when tuning into organized violence each Sunday afternoon. The NFL itself has become a sort of religious experience to some people, and they surely do not want the Sunday morning services spread to their Sunday afternoon services.

But every game we see players praying both before and after the contest. Always when a player is injured do we see prayer circles forming with members of both teams participating. Religion and faith are intermingled in the NFL with many players of many different faiths and beliefs happy to smack into one another one moment and say a prayer of thanks they both walked away afterwards. So is it really so bad to have a quarterback not afraid of speaking how he feels on such matters?

We laud Tony Dungy and his strong beliefs in the Lord and how his strong convictions have helped mold his charges into good players and better men. People look up to Troy Polamalu as a wonderful man of such deep convictions; he has a cross stitched into the back of his jersey. And yes, his hair does hide it, but soon his hair will hide his number too. Yet to me people seem to have uncomfortableness with Tebow’s convictions.

We always say we admire leaders not afraid to speak their mind or strong in their convictions. Does this description not fit Tebow, a leader on and off the field comfortable with speaking his mind and strong in his convictions? And it’s not like he’s forcing anyone to believe what he believes, just sharing it. Perhaps I’m reading into things too much, but I cannot find another valid explanation for the constant nitpicking of this young man.

I get the reasons people say he won’t make it. Yes his mechanics are flawed, and yes his style is more suited to getting him creamed than completing a pass. This has been already proven as he took a wicked shot running for a touchdown in his first preseason game. But these are things that can be taught, fixed and instructed. You can change how a man plays the game, but you cannot change his attitude.

Coaches, GMs and owners are always harping about how intangibles make a player. They speak often about rather having a player with incredible drive and heart than the best physical tools. Every season we see a player come out of nowhere that the best scouts thought was undersized, too short or too slow. Yet this player somehow breaks the statistical mold and becomes a star. Why is that? Because this player has drive, heart and is a winner. Well, Tim Tebow is a winner, and that cannot be taught. You can teach someone how to win, what it takes to win, but you cannot teach them to be a winner. You cannot teach drive, leadership, poise and desire to succeed. If you could, JaMarcus Russell would still have a job.

Tim Tebow holds the intangibles that are necessary to succeed on the football field and in life. He has the right attitude and ability to learn what he needs to know and fix to become successful. I have no doubt with his mindset and convictions he will be successful. Even if he never succeeds as a pro quarterback, he will be successful at where his life takes him; he has the right mind set and attitude to be a success. You can tell by the way he speaks that if this does not work out, he’ll be happy he had the opportunity and move on with, as Chuck Noll was fond of putting it, his life’s work. I just hope when that day comes and he becomes a wild success, those who have been busy picking him apart finally shut up, instead of finding some new fault to hoist upon him.