Tebow deserved better from the NFL

[michael89156]

Tebow not great or even very good, but deserved better from NFL




By Gregg Doyel | National Columnist
CBS Sports.com

Jan. 14, 2013 8:38 AM ET

 



Ding-dong, the witch is dead. Which old witch? The Tebow witch.

Tim Tebow's career. It seems to be over.

And you're loving it -- well, those of you who aren't hating it. And some of you are hating it, as well you should be. If you're a fan of Tim Tebow, he's the best thing to hit the NFL since, well, the NFL. For those of you who love Tebow, who love his religion or his innocence or just his story, you hate what's happening right now. Your guy is being run out of the league at this very moment, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. His career is a car going the wrong way on the interstate -- the crash is coming, it's coming, it's coming ...

And you're watching as it happens. Cringing. Nauseated. Unable to stop it, but unable to stop looking. 

Those are the folks who love Tebow.

The rest of you? This is what you wanted. Happy? He's about to be gone from your NFL, Tim Tebow is. His poison is about to be sucked out of the game, like a rattlesnake bite that was caught before it did too much damage. All 32 teams are affixing their lips to the wound, sucking it up and spitting it out of their league.

That's Tim Tebow. He's a car crash, or he's a poisonous loogie.

And this is me: Baffled. Disappointed. Angry.

Tim Tebow deserves better than this. He deserves better from the NFL, and he deserves better from you. But worry not -- this is no attempt to convince anyone that you're wrong, because years of experience have shown me that people like you, on stories like this, don't change your mind even when you are dead wrong. And hell, maybe you're not wrong. Maybe I'm dead wrong, me and the zealots who have fallen in love with Tebow over the past few years. Maybe we're the problem here.

Actually, I know we are.

Tebow is being run out of the league because the league is sick of us. See, what's happening to Tim Tebow is happening because of people like me, people who love writing about Tebow and talking about Tebow and obsessing over Tebow. That's a lot of noise surrounding a player who isn't a great NFL player. He was a great college player, no question. Maybe the greatest of all time. Certainly on the short list, despite the impossible subjectivity of that debate. Greatest college player of all time? Impossible to decide, but impossible to leave Tebow out of the conversation given his one Heisman Trophy, two other top-five Heisman finishes and role on two national championship teams at Florida.

Anyway, Tebow was great in college. He has not been great in the NFL, or even very good. His record as a starter is 8-6, which certainly makes him sound very good, but we all saw what happened in 2011 when he was going 7-4 as a starter with the Broncos. He wasn't great, but the Denver defense was. He wasn't even very good, except for the final minutes of close games when something special, downright supernatural, kept happening. He wasn't even great in the playoff game he won, though he did throw for a great-sounding 316 yards against Pittsburgh. But he was just 10 of 21 on the day, and 80 of those yards came on the final play, a relatively short pass over the middle that Demaryius Thomas took all the way into the end zone for the winning touchdown.

He hasn't been great or even very good, but he's been special. He's fun. He's different. And different is good, unless you like all your backup quarterbacks in the NFL to be the same guy, some doofus named Brady Leinart Gradkowski Clemens. Same guy, all of them. Drop-back passers who can't pass, but who sure look the part -- and who don't have a frenzy of fans screaming for them to play. So they get to stay.

Tebow? You have to go, son. Nothing personal, but the people who love you are getting on our nerves. So we're going to shut them up by shipping you out.

That's what is happening here, and I don't mean to antagonize Tebow's fans. This isn't me, poking that bear with a stick. Look, I enjoy Tebow in the NFL too. I didn't always, but he won me over during that 2011 season when the magic or mystery -- or whatever that was -- was just too much to ignore. Lots of pundits -- and you know who I'm talking about, Prisco -- didn't like Tebow from Day 1 and decided they weren't going to come around. Me, I came around. Puts me in the minority, because most folks decided on Tebow, the NFL quarterback, when he was still in college. People like Prisco (whom I like) and Merril Hoge (meh) decided Tebow's presence was beneath the NFL.

And maybe it is. But you know what? Tebow never got the chance to prove otherwise. Look, his 8-6 starting record is misleading, and we all know it, but at the same time it happened. His track record as a starter is that of a guy who wins. However it happens, it happens.

Brady Quinn's record as an NFL starter is 4-16. Bruce Gradkowski is 6-14. Matt Leinart, 8-10.

Tim Tebow is 8-6.

Kellen Clemens is 4-8. Chad Henne, 14-23. The brothers McCown, Luke and Josh, are a combined 15-27.

Tim Tebow is 8-6.

Tyler Thigpen is 1-12.

Those guys will have a job in 2013 if they want it. So will Tebow, I guess, if he switches to tight end. That way, when Matt Leinart drops back and throws it to him, at least a real quarterback with a real quarterback's throwing motion will be bouncing the ball in the dirt.

Tebow shouldn't be used as a carnival attraction to sell tickets and generate headlines -- but he shouldn't be run out of the NFL at age 25, either. There's a whole lot of middle ground in there, room enough for John Skelton and Derek Anderson and Ryan Lindley to have a job in the NFL.

But there's no room for Tebow? This is my fault, and Tebow fans, this is your fault. But it sucks all the same.

[Benchwarmer#1]

Idk about you guys, but I'm loving the tebow-trolls tears. Almost better than Brady losing playoff tears.

If it weren't for most of his fans annoying nature, I'd actually root for the guy. Shame. His own stupid fans bring him down.

[BucBalla85]

Tebow fans overhyped him. Tebows got Java to blame.

[The Anti-Java]

SMH..........Now we have moved into ..Tebow is a victim mode.

[Benchwarmer#1]

Tebow fans overhyped him. Tebows got Java to blame.

Tebow probably has a god complex as much as they sucked on his "tebag."

[youngone]

Don't really sorry for the guy.. He's not the first player to suck in the NFL. Other guys with more talent than him get dropped out of the league all the time without the whole poor Timmy song and dance.

[Benchwarmer#1]

Don't really sorry for the guy.. He's not the first player to suck in the NFL. Other guys with more talent than him get dropped out of the league all the time without the whole poor Timmy song and dance.

+1 this

[1sparkybuc]

The prayer pose and the virginity crap is fine in church, and I have no problem when people pray when a player is injured. I pay to see football. I have no interest in religion at all and I resent it when people interrupt my entertainment to testify about their beliefs. It just reminds me that there is ignorance and superstition at the highest levels of every society in the world. We can talk to people any place on the planet, but we can't communicate with our next door neighbors. In this modern age thousands and thousands are murdered and persecuted every year. We could have the best schools and the best health care on the planet if we didn't have to waste our young people and our tax dollars fighting a war with no end. I pay to be distracted from all this for three hours on a Sunday afternoon. There are many players who have deep religious convictions who keep them in their proper place. Tebow should follow their example. Steve Young is a devout Morman. He's one of my all time favorites. Great player. Great guy. Tebow stinks. Denver's defense carried him, but only so far. Peyton Manning is near the end of his career. Elway knew Tebow would never develop into a starting caliber NFL QB. Even with Peyton's health concerns, Elway didn't want Tebow back for another season. Tebow has made his money. Stolen might be a better word. I don't feel sorry for him. He's not a player. He's a carnival sideshow.

[caradoc]

The prayer pose and the virginity crap is fine in church, and I have no problem when people pray when a player is injured. I pay to see football. I have no interest in religion at all and I resent it when people interrupt my entertainment to testify about their beliefs. It just reminds me that there is ignorance and superstition at the highest levels of every society in the world. We can talk to people any place on the planet, but we can't communicate with our next door neighbors. In this modern age thousands and thousands are murdered and persecuted every year. We could have the best schools and the best health care on the planet if we didn't have to waste our young people and our tax dollars fighting a war with no end. I pay to be distracted from all this for three hours on a Sunday afternoon. There are many players who have deep religious convictions who keep them in their proper place. Tebow should follow their example. Steve Young is a devout Morman. He's one of my all time favorites. Great player. Great guy. Tebow stinks. Denver's defense carried him, but only so far. Peyton Manning is near the end of his career. Elway knew Tebow would never develop into a starting caliber NFL QB. Even with Peyton's health concerns, Elway didn't want Tebow back for another season. Tebow has made his money. Stolen might be a better word. I don't feel sorry for him. He's not a player. He's a carnival sideshow.

So much hate from a guy who is always so distressed that others "can't handle a difference of opinion" that he invariably resorts to name-calling.

[caradoc]

Idk about you guys, but I'm loving the tebow-trolls tears. Almost better than Brady losing playoff tears.

If it weren't for most of his fans annoying nature, I'd actually root for the guy. Shame. His own stupid fans bring him down.

I'm not a fan of his at all, but it's pretty clear watching the whole thing from the outside that the problem isn't his fans, it's his haters.  The only thing that's really annoying about his fans is that they have the unmitigated gall to defend him against people who hate him with a passion for his religious beliefs.  Shame on them for not shutting up and sweeping his faith under the rug like the dirty little secret his haters believe it should be.

[Boid Fink]

Java helped ruin Tebow?  Sweeeet.

[TBTrojan]

Idk about you guys, but I'm loving the tebow-trolls tears. Almost better than Brady losing playoff tears.

If it weren't for most of his fans annoying nature, I'd actually root for the guy. Shame. His own stupid fans bring him down.

I'm not a fan of his at all, but it's pretty clear watching the whole thing from the outside that the problem isn't his fans, it's his haters.  The only thing that's really annoying about his fans is that they have the unmitigated gall to defend him against people who hate him with a passion for his religious beliefs.  Shame on them for not shutting up and sweeping his faith under the rug like the dirty little secret his haters believe it should be.

That's a whole chicken or egg thing.
#1 Do the haters only hate him because they were sick to the back teeth of hearing about how wonderful he was from his lovers
or
#2 Were the lovers only so loud because they are defending against the haters?
For me it was #1, I had no feelings on the guy at all, he was just another good college football player but lovers kicked in with the frankly nauseating hype.
I actually still don't have any personal feelings towards Tebow himself, it's the constant talk about him when he's done nothing to talk about and the praise heaped on him that should have been shared by many others.
|I don't want him out of the league but I also don't want him on my team, I simply don't want to hear about him anymore until he's doing something that is worth talking about.

In terms of his faith, why should it be out there and not under the rug? Religion (of all faiths) has no place in football
Faith is a personal thing, if I don't share a persons religious beliefs they should deal with it, respect it and move on
Don't try to shove theirs down my throat like they know better. I respect their rights to belive what they want so why can't they respect mine.
That's what irks me when people say "he's just spreading the word of God like a good christian/it's the role of a good Christian to spread the word" like it's some unknown thing that any smart person will get behind if only they knew about it.
NEWSFLASH
People have heard, some people simply don't care or believe, so leave them be.
I'd love for a player to come along that prays to Allah mid game, every game and was vocal about it, you think that would be deemed ok or would the Christians be in an uproar over not being respected due to having another set of beliefs rammed down their throat?

[Nicodemus]

I doubt it's the last we'll hear of Tebow, he'll probably get picked up by an Arena or CFL team, play pretty well for a few years and get another shot at the NFL. The guy can play football, he just wasn't ready for the NFL.

[Chief Joseph]

 " Java helped ruin Tebow? Sweeeet. "

It would seem that there's no end to his powers.

[Pewter Pirate]

 No person ruined Tebow.  Tebow is what he is.  If he is good enough to start he will regardless of who loves or hates him.  Michael Vick was accepted backi , because he could start.