Tim Tebow seems like a great guy. He’s enthusiastic. He’s charismatic. He’s faithful. He’s decent. He inspires those around him. He visits the sick and weary. Before a recent game, he met with and encouraged a prep quarterback who had part of his leg amputated after an injury in the fall. His charitable foundation has brought a young fan to every Denver Broncos game this year.
And Tebow has been part of a sensational run by a team that didn’t have much to offer before the quarterback was inserted into the starting lineup earlier in the season. After Sunday’s thrilling NFL playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, in which he accounted for 366 total yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime, Tebowmania has never been hotter.
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All fun and good.
Unlike some, I have almost no problem with Tebow’s preach-it-brother attitude. He wears his Christian beliefs where everyone can see them, on the outermost layer, like a coat of many colors. He starts his interviews by thanking his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This is, on the one hand, moving and, on the other, disturbing to unknown percentages of those who watch, but either way … people do watch Tebow and the Broncos. Sunday’s playoff win was the highest-rated wild-card game in 24 years. Estimates put the total number of viewers at the end of the game at 45 million.
Praise the Lord.
Tebow can get ’em in the revival tent.
But there’s one big part of the Tebow show that should go: the whole "Tebowing" thing. What is the Faithful One doing out there when he drops to a knee on the football field and sends up a prayer to God? What sayeth thou, Brother Tim?
It doesn’t matter what he says, what he’s praying about.
What does matter is he’s doing it right there on the turf, in front of fans, the cameras, his teammates, and, most significantly, the opposing team. In this most recent case, in front of the defeated Steelers, who, just like him, had worked their tails off to get where they were and had their own dreams of winning and moving on toward the Super Bowl. Some of those Steelers are every bit as faithful as Tebow, even if they don’t show it with such outward fervor.
Tebow isn’t the first player to victoriously pray in plain view of the defeated. We’ve seen it for years, after a receiver catches a touchdown pass, after a running back crosses the goal line, after a kicker hits a field goal. They drop to a knee to give thanks to the Almighty for blessing them in such a manner.
The problem with that inclination is this: It’s the worst kind of trash talk.
Not only does it say that receiver was athletically better on a play than the opposing defensive back assigned to cover him, it also says God favored the receiver over the other poor schmuck, too. Same with the running back, the kicker, the quarterback versus the linebacker, the special-teams defense, the other team as whole.
When any player takes a knee — or Tebows — on the field, it may acknowledge Heaven’s hand in all things, but it also embarrasses the hell out of the guys who were just disfavored from on High.
That’s the trouble with bringing religion into sports.
It’s a competitive thing. It’s mano-a-mano, team against team. There’s always a winner and always a loser — unless it’s soccer, a game where the Lord of Hosts sometimes, apparently, gives the nod to neither side, turning his back on the entire endeavor.
It is forever frozen on the big screen in my brain, the image of Evander Holyfield once beating an opponent to a bloody mess, turning his face into what looked like a bag of melted caramels, and then sending up public prayers of gratitude afterward, claiming the Sovereign of the Universe was with him that night.
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