Friday, January 13, 2012

Mr. Tebow: Love him or hate him. No middle ground allowed


Tim Tebow during pregame (1-8-12) warm-ups before the Broncos  29-23
overtime win.

I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t hold back.  I have to give a Tim Tebow blog another go; I started to write a blog a few weeks ago but never finished as I ran out of steam. 
Tebow has captured the football world, even more the nation.  We now have “Tebow time” and “Tebowing”.  The TV numbers back up that he has taking the nation by storm; the Steelers Vs Broncos game on January 8, 2012 received a 25.9 rating or roughly 42.3 million people. (I don’t understand TV ratings at all, just know the bigger the number the more people that watched) Tebow gives the nation an athlete that has done nothing wrong off the field. This is great because we are finally talking about an athlete that does nothing but good things off the field instead the “bad ones” that we have become accustomed to.

Now to be honest I have never really been a fan of Tebow, because he went to Florida and I am not a big fan of Florida football.  Also, because the media has latched on to him since he was a freshman at Florida.  It’s not that I don’t like him; I just got sick of hearing about him nonstop.  It has only gotten worst since he starting playing this year and the team went on an unbelievable run. Which now has led to a win in the playoffs, which is great for them.

The biggest problem with talking about Tebow is there is no middle ground.  People who love him can’t see his play on the field, or refuse to open their eyes; only thing they see are wins.  Which at the end of the day are the only thing that matters, but it does not translate in to long term success.  

People who hate him don’t understand him and hate him for a variety of reasons.  People for some reason are not able to separate his on field play and his off field life.  Which is kind of ironic since people are able to keep players with bad reputations on field play apart for their off field problems.

We finally have an athlete by all accounts has done nothing but good things off the field and people just can’t wait to knock him.  Now part of it is the media with their nonstop coverage of Tebow.  Some don’t like his religious belief, which is their own choice.

I respect Tebow off the field for everything he does and continues to do.  For me it’s the on field play that I cannot respect, other then the wins.   Now don’t get me wrong he has gotten better most weeks he has been out there playing.  Which is great for him and the Broncos.  There are many quarterbacks in the NFL who have been able to win games despite their skills.  Reason they have talent all around them; this is something that Tebow has.  The worst two positions on the Broncos are Quarterback and receivers, receivers are young and both look like they might be good receivers in the NFL. Tebow has been getting better but he is nowhere near being a good quarterback in the NFL.  This is where people who love him start to get upset.  There is no way around it, his stats are terrible, if it was any other QB people would be calling for him to be replaced.  People look to replace quarterbacks whose teams have had good years, but they were subpar all the time.  Tebow completed just 46.5% of his passes this season for 1,729 yards.  Tebow however threw for 12 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions.  A good Td: Int ratio for any Qb in the NFl, there are good Qb with a lower ratio.

The best player to compare Tebow to is Mark Sanchez.  Now I believe Sanchez is the better QB right now, but he is not good.  To me the Jets have won in spite of Sanchez.  I feel the same way about Tebow and the Broncos.  The Broncos have won games that Tebow has done some great things in the fourth quarter.  The Broncos defense is keeping them in games allowing for “Tebow Time”.  The same thing has happened with Sanchez, who has led 11 come back wins in the fourth quarter in his 3 years in the NFL.  Tebow has been apart of 7 total in two years, one last year and one in the playoffs.  However pro-football-reference.com states that the “QB deserves no credit for the comeback”.  Which I guess since the Steelers were the ones making the comeback it makes sense but Tebow did throw the game winning TD in overtime for the Broncos.

Can Tebow be successful in the NFL? Short-term answer yes, long term answer jury is still out.  It is hard to say no to the long term because how much he has improved in such a short time period.  Would I like him to be successful? Yeah why wouldn’t I he is an underdog, everyone told him he couldn’t play in the NFL.  He is winning games but to be a long-term success he needs to improve a ton in the passing game.  He needs to learn to make reads and trust his offensive line early in games.   A lot of the plays Tebow makes are because he doesn’t see the open receivers and just takes off running.  He will grow, he could be good, but he is a work in progress that still has a ton of rough edges.  

Tebow lovers also need to pump the breaks when it comes to talking about him.  Only thing Tebow has going for him right now are the wins.  What happens once they stop coming?  I have no problem with people who like him.  I think they just need to realize this might not last long, unless he improves.  But if he does improve there will be no need for “Tebow Time” which for now I think it should be called “Elway time” since he lead 46 fourth quarter comebacks in his day.  Glad to see the magic staying in Denver, there must be something in that Rocky Mountain water.

·        FYI the most come back wins ever by a QB is 51 which is held by Dan Marino followed by Elway and Peyton Manning with 46 each.

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