Tim Tebow is one of the most overrated players in the NFL. Do not get me wrong, he is one of my favorite players in the league. He is a great player, but he is not a one-man team. The rest of the Broncos have played incredibly as well. Tebow is the one that has gotten all of the popularity and has deserved quite a bit of it. He has led the team to a 7-1 record as a starting quarterback that took over after a 1-4 start by the Broncos. They are leading the AFC West division by one game. He has led thrilling drives when the Broncos were written off from having a chance to win.
Tim Tebow’s college career for the Florida Gators was incredible. As a freshman, he was a backup quarterback when they won the National Championship that year. In his three years as a starter, he was a finalist for the Heisman award every year. He also became the first sophomore to win the award. In his junior year, he led the Gators to another national championship. During that year, Florida had an early season loss to Ole Miss when Tim delivered the speech that has since been known as “The Promise”:
:”“To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here.” “I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season.” “You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season.”
He fulfilled that promise and won the National Championship that year. Tebow was selected with the 25th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. He was made a starter for the final 3 games of his rookie year where he went 1-2. This year, new coach John Fox made Kyle Orton (the same guy that Tebow had replaced the year before) his starting quarterback. There was speculation if Tebow was even the 2nd string quarterback after a terrible preseason. The Broncos started the year 1-4 with Orton as quarterback. During that span, Denver fans would come to the games just to yell, “WE WANT TEBOW.” There was even false speculation that Fox might lose his job for not starting Tebow. Week 6 was the Broncos bye week, and John Fox made the decision to give Tebow the starting gig. He was promptly ripped apart by reporters for giving into the fans.
His first start was at the Miami Dolphins which was fitting for the Florida native. He looked terrible for the first 55 minutes of the game. Then it was Tebow time. He went 10-19 with 137 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Tebow ran in the two point conversion to tie the game at 15-15 with 17 seconds left in the game. The Broncos won in overtime on a field goal by Matt Prater.
The next week, the Broncos were annihilated by the Lions. There was more speculation if Tebow should be the starter or if Fox should have stayed with Orton. Fox stuck with him and the Broncos have had a 6 game winning streak ever since. Almost all of these have been won very late in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Tebow has had many reporters who ripped him in the past, change their stance on him. I will admit that I was always a Tebow fan, but I never thought he would do anything in the pros. Now ESPN (which had spent the entire season ripping him apart) have something good about Tebow daily. They spent half of their three hour Sunday morning show talking about the Broncos vs. Patriots game. He has had a ridiculous amount of articles written on him and the Broncos comebacks. Through all of this, he has stayed remarkably humble. He has never even thought about boasting or bragging. He has always put the team first. ESPN had him a microphone on him the whole game, and all he talked about was believing. Not one of his comments was negative. He was always telling his teammates to believe. There was a lot of praying and thanking god as well. Rick Reilly ( a famous sports writer) hired a lip reader who studied Tebow a couple of games this year. The worst thing he ever saw was Tebow getting in someone’s face and saying “Let’s go!”
The Broncos have won on some pretty miraculous plays made him by him and his teammates. He is a very openly religious person and some people claim that he has the power of god on his side. I will not speculate either way. There has been a cultural phenomenon resulting from this though. It’s called Tebowing. It has become a verb in many people’s everyday language. An example of it has been shown in the picture at the top. There are pictures of people doing it all over the world. It has hit our school as well. In my personal fitness class, I know that most of the guys in the class Tebow before playing. It is a fun thing to do. We even incorporated into our pregame basketball ritual. Fans at the game did it as well. IN New York, 4 kids were suspended for tebowing in the hallway. They apparently clogged the hallway. Same thing happened at Nicolet High School in Fox Point. Bottom line, it is a fun thing to do, but be careful where you do it.
Tim Tebow has quickly become a cultural icon. Yes, he is just a football player, but he is so much more. He is a guy that shows anything is possible. No matter what happens with the rest of the Broncos season, he will always be remembered for what he has done this year. My bold prediction is that the Broncos will lose to the Packers in the Super Bowl.
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