I was hoping to get through this NFL season without feeling obliged to comment on the plainly fleeting phenomenon that is Tim Tebow’s “tebowing.” Alas, popular demand has forced my hand. So here is my two cents worth.
There is no denying that Tebow is the luckiest SOB to ever play the game of football. That, despite his mediocre talent, he led the University of Florida to two national championships (2007, 2009) and has led the Denver Broncos to more last-minute wins this season than some teams have experienced in franchise history are testaments to this fact.
But nothing demonstrates how exaggerated and misplaced much of the praise he’s getting is quite like that being lavished upon him for Denver’s upset victory over the heavily favored Pittsburg Steelers in Sunday’s AFC wild-card game. Here’s why:
Denver clinched it in spectacular fashion with an 80-yard touchdown pass from Tebow to Demaryius Thomas on the first play in overtime (the teams were tied 23-23 at the end of regulation).
To listen to most sports analysts and commentators, however, you’d think this play happened because Tebow hiked the ball to himself, passed it to himself, and then eluded tackles as he scampered down the field to seal the victory … all by himself.
Whereas, it happened only because Thomas caught a 20-yard pass from Tebow and then scampered 60 yards for the touchdown, eluding tackles and stiff arming defenders along the way.
So how would you feel if you were Thomas and the entire world reacted to this play – not just by focusing on Tim “tebowing” in prayer up at midfield instead of on you jumping for joy down in the end zone, but by glorifying him as if he were the second coming of Jesus Christ and you were just the donkey he rode in on?
I can sum up the ostentatious way Tebow kneels in prayer during games in one word: pharisaic.
You can be forgiven the impression that he’s the first born-again Christian to play professional football, or any other sport for that matter. He is not, not by a long shot.
And, trust me, as the son of a preacher man who could recite John 3:16 before kindergarten, I know the power (or lack thereof) of prayer. Frankly, it reflects an inhumane conceit to think that God is listening to Tebow praying for help to win a friggin football game (or even to give thanks afterwards) when tens of millions of starving and war-ravaged people are praying for him to save their lives.
By the way, does anyone think he’d be such a media darling if he were a Muslim and tebowing involved him bowing down on all fours and shouting out “Allahu akbar”?
Meanwhile, that Tebow beat out Kobe Bryant, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees to win a recent ESPN poll for “America’s favorite athlete” demonstrates again how exaggerated and misguided the hosannas to him really are.
In any case, I am pretty sure this phenomenon will die a media death this weekend when Tom Brady and the New England Patriots show Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, in convincing fashion, that winning football games has absolutely nothing to do with how much of a spectacle one makes of praying to God.
Apropos of hype, despite all of the talk about Michael Vick leading my team the Philadelphia Eagles all the way to Super Bowl victory this season, he didn’t even get them into the playoff….