My Thoughts on Tim Tebow

As a loyal fan of the Dallas Cowboys, I haven't willingly followed Tim Tebow's performance this season.

The problem, of course, is that it's quite nearly impossible to watch football and miss Tim Tebow's performance this season - largely because everyone feels the need to opine at length about it, or perform the odd "Tebowing with Santa," to make their views absolutely clear.

When I say everyone, I usually intend the word to pack a bit of melodrama. In Tebow's case, it stands to reason that not everyone can form a definitive opinion of a rookie quarterback no matter how famously heralded his college days were. (A simple look at former USC QB Matt Leinart is sufficient to make the point. Leinart took his team to the BCS National Championship, and won a Heisman Trophy while in college. Yet, his most famous accomplishment in the NFL has been a guest appearance on Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd.)

But in Tebow's case, quite literally everyone who watches football has conjured up some type of opinion on the Broncos QB. From ex-quarterbacks who remain skeptical, to religious experts who seem baffled, to NBA super star LeBron James who flat sounds supportive - heck even Bill Cosby took a break from promoting pudding pops to weigh in on the Tebow phenomenon. Naturally, Bill C. is a fan.

Among current and recent NFL players, those who have faced Tebow on the field sound mostly bitter.Not only has Tebow gone 6-1 as a starter, but he has done so in electric fashion, leading five come-from-behind victories deep in the fourth quarter.

Those who haven't faced Tebow on the field seem more concerned about Tebow's public displays of faith (PDFs?), than his actual performance as a quarterback. These include former Rams QB, Kurt Warner, and former Broncos QB Jake Plummer.

Given that everyone else has beat me to the punch, in the grand tradition of Thursday morning quarterbacking, here's two-cents from yours truly. I think the best summary of the Tebow phenomenon come from the National Review's Rich Lowry:

Raised by missionaries and home-schooled, Tebow sets off cultural tripwires. He says he’s a virgin. Feminists were outraged by a gently pro-life Super Bowl ad he did with his mom about her troubled pregnancy when she was carrying him. But as writer Daniel Foster notes, what is most off-putting to some people about Tebow is his utter lack of irony and sheer earnestness. Doesn’t he know life isn’t a 1950s sitcom? Can’t he leaven his impossible goodness with a few readily identifiable vices? You can almost hear his critics urging him, “Shut up already about God, and please start failing.”

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It's hard for me to imagine the National Review offering a cogent bit of football analysis, but Lowry's piece summarizes the Tebow controversy superbly. The simple fact is that Tebow's off-the-field critics couldn't care less about his style of play - which has opened up a new era of NFL football with the running game again taking center stage through an option-based offense in a league of pass-happy teams. And Tebow's off-the-field critics don't much care that he has gone 6-1 as a starter, and led five come-from-behind wins.

Tim Tebow's off-the-field critics care only that he supposedly injects his faith too much into his public persona.

While the diagnosis is relatively clear, I cannot understand the rationale for criticizing Tebow simply because he unabashedly shares his Christian beliefs in public. The repressed lawyer in me can't help but feel that the entire notion cuts against the very best traditions of our Nation, and its typically fierce protection of the freedom of speech. Note that society and the courts tend to tolerate the freedom of speech in the form of pornography, hate speech, corporate campaign contributions, and the desecration of the American flag. Yet for reasons completely inexplicable the chattering class is fixated upon Tim Tebow's dropped knee, and bowed head on the sidelines.

As Lowry notes, the latent issue seems to be that Tebow's public profile is a new model of counter-culture, one harkening back to the values and social conventions of a more innocent time. This almost makes Tebow's NFL career a post-post-modern phenomenon. The earnestness of his beliefs represent a stark contrast to the socially acceptable idea of NFL players, and athletes in general, reveling in their vices - including time spent in prison, womanizing, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc.

Given the opposition, doubt, and outright ridicule that Tim Tebow has faced in his short career, I hope that he has a long, prosperous, championship-filled career in the NFL. And I hope that he silences each and every critic again, and again. As Frank Capra demonstrated some 65 years ago, the world needs more George Baileys, and fewer Henry Potters. If Tebow isn't the NFL's George Bailey, then I'm not sure that the league will ever have one.

And so, Tim Tebow, Godspeed. Here's hoping it's a wonderful life after all.