Showing posts with label Tim Tebow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Tebow. Show all posts
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Tebow Haters
From: Human Events
One’s opinion of Tim Tebow tells you much. The Denver Broncos quarterback is a human Rorschach test.
Thursday night, the Football Jesus engineered a last-minute miracle victory over the New York Jets. A twenty-yard bootleg touchdown put the exclamation point on the upset.
One might think winning would provide an effective rebuttal to Tebow’s vocal detractors. Alas, haters gonna hate.
Anonymous online message boards are a favorite gathering spot for Tebow’s anti-fans. “If God really favored him, he would’ve given him a QB’s arm,” one internet wit announced during Thursday’s game, while another proclaimed him “an overhyped fraud whose time is quickly running out.”
After the game, Denver’s alternative weekly paper labeled Tebow the “best awful QB in NFL history,” asking: “How can a QB this bad keep winning?” Cowboys assistant coach Rob Ryan labeled Tebow’s run-oriented play “horse$#!+” that caused him to vomit. “This is the NFL,” barked the brother of the Jets head coach. “Those teams don’t win.”
Just a few hours earlier, that particular team did win. Tim Tebow tends to have that effect on logic.
Good people make bad people uncomfortable. Their example nudges everyone to undertake the hard work to be better. Our faults are so much easier to tolerate when we stand next to Jerry Sandusky.
More impressive than the on-field dramatics is the off-field demeanor. Tebow exhibited an infectious aw-shucks enthusiasm in his postgame interview with the NFL network. His namedropping of Jesus came across as heartfelt rather than perfunctory. He mouthed empty sports clichés with a strange conviction. He put a target on his back by plainly stating he wants to be a role model. As the highlight of his week, he pointed to a hospital his foundation helped build in the Philippines rather than the victory over the Jets.
Tim Tebow doesn’t know his place. Homeschooled kids win spelling bees not Heisman trophies. Two-hundred-and-fifty-pound specimens are supposed to play quarterback of the defense not middle linebacker of the offense. Touchdown celebrations give glory to oneself not to one’s God. Even in the womb, when his mother’s dysentery, prescribed drugs, and comatose state compelled doctors to advise abortion, and later to predict a stillbirth, neither Tim Tebow nor his mom conformed to the low standards experts expected of them. And his antagonists hate him for it.
Sports fans (short for fanatics, remember) cheer a fleet-footed dog executioner in Philadelphia. They riot for a coach who took a hands-off approach to an alleged pederast assistant. They bought record numbers of pay-per-view broadcasts of a heavyweight rapist. They are a forgiving bunch for whom good play atones for bad behavior. But for some fans, the one unforgivable sin is avoiding sin. We like our heroes to be heels. They flatter our egalitarianism and sense of superiority at once.
There is something sick about sports culture that also afflicts the broader culture. America increasingly celebrates winning of the Charlie Sheen sort. We jeer a spectacle more than we cheer accomplishment. We award notoriety and not achievement. Bizarro, not Superman, is our national superhero.
Player hating transcends sport. The great have more to fear from the mediocre than the mediocre have to fear from the great. Occupy Wall Street, a movement predicated on the assumption that the most successful one percent must be inherently immoral, transforms envy into a virtue. We reward failures: General Motors, Fannie Mae, Greece, Kim Kardashian. We attack success. We wonder why we continue to fail.
You have to be upside down to look down on the people on top. That’s the topsy-turvy country which we are slowly emigrating to, the United States of Resentment.
Who hates a winner? A loser.
One’s opinion of Tim Tebow tells you much. The Denver Broncos quarterback is a human Rorschach test.
Thursday night, the Football Jesus engineered a last-minute miracle victory over the New York Jets. A twenty-yard bootleg touchdown put the exclamation point on the upset.
One might think winning would provide an effective rebuttal to Tebow’s vocal detractors. Alas, haters gonna hate.
Anonymous online message boards are a favorite gathering spot for Tebow’s anti-fans. “If God really favored him, he would’ve given him a QB’s arm,” one internet wit announced during Thursday’s game, while another proclaimed him “an overhyped fraud whose time is quickly running out.”
After the game, Denver’s alternative weekly paper labeled Tebow the “best awful QB in NFL history,” asking: “How can a QB this bad keep winning?” Cowboys assistant coach Rob Ryan labeled Tebow’s run-oriented play “horse$#!+” that caused him to vomit. “This is the NFL,” barked the brother of the Jets head coach. “Those teams don’t win.”
Just a few hours earlier, that particular team did win. Tim Tebow tends to have that effect on logic.
Good people make bad people uncomfortable. Their example nudges everyone to undertake the hard work to be better. Our faults are so much easier to tolerate when we stand next to Jerry Sandusky.
More impressive than the on-field dramatics is the off-field demeanor. Tebow exhibited an infectious aw-shucks enthusiasm in his postgame interview with the NFL network. His namedropping of Jesus came across as heartfelt rather than perfunctory. He mouthed empty sports clichés with a strange conviction. He put a target on his back by plainly stating he wants to be a role model. As the highlight of his week, he pointed to a hospital his foundation helped build in the Philippines rather than the victory over the Jets.
Tim Tebow doesn’t know his place. Homeschooled kids win spelling bees not Heisman trophies. Two-hundred-and-fifty-pound specimens are supposed to play quarterback of the defense not middle linebacker of the offense. Touchdown celebrations give glory to oneself not to one’s God. Even in the womb, when his mother’s dysentery, prescribed drugs, and comatose state compelled doctors to advise abortion, and later to predict a stillbirth, neither Tim Tebow nor his mom conformed to the low standards experts expected of them. And his antagonists hate him for it.
Sports fans (short for fanatics, remember) cheer a fleet-footed dog executioner in Philadelphia. They riot for a coach who took a hands-off approach to an alleged pederast assistant. They bought record numbers of pay-per-view broadcasts of a heavyweight rapist. They are a forgiving bunch for whom good play atones for bad behavior. But for some fans, the one unforgivable sin is avoiding sin. We like our heroes to be heels. They flatter our egalitarianism and sense of superiority at once.
There is something sick about sports culture that also afflicts the broader culture. America increasingly celebrates winning of the Charlie Sheen sort. We jeer a spectacle more than we cheer accomplishment. We award notoriety and not achievement. Bizarro, not Superman, is our national superhero.
Player hating transcends sport. The great have more to fear from the mediocre than the mediocre have to fear from the great. Occupy Wall Street, a movement predicated on the assumption that the most successful one percent must be inherently immoral, transforms envy into a virtue. We reward failures: General Motors, Fannie Mae, Greece, Kim Kardashian. We attack success. We wonder why we continue to fail.
You have to be upside down to look down on the people on top. That’s the topsy-turvy country which we are slowly emigrating to, the United States of Resentment.
Who hates a winner? A loser.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Why So Much Tebow Hating?
From: FOX Sports
Tim Tebow's opening drive Thursday dripped with every criticism ever hurled in his vicinity.
Quick to run. Slow to set up, read, release. Lacking accuracy.
And because this was Tim Tebow rather than, say, Brady Quinn, we heard an "amen" from an angry congregation of sports fans reveling in his fail. If Schadenfreude needs a corporate sponsor, call Twitter. Fans and journalists alike unloaded on the Broncos quarterback and his faith 140 characters at a time early and often during Thursday's preseason festivities.
Tebow in game. Let's see if he can cure leprosy.
God has decided to wait until regular season to start assisting Tebow.
God flipping over from GOP debate to watch Tebow.
All were in stark contrast to Tebow's "Joshua 1:9" pregame tweet that loosely translates to "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go," depending on your Bible of choice.
I am not a preacher. And this is not a sermon.
My message actually is just a question: Why? What about Tebow brings out such meanness in us?
Because this seems strangely personal, like some folks want him to fail, just to be able to ask, "Where's your Messiah now?" — also seen on Twitter on Thursday. I have seen columns already calling him a failure, predicting his imminent demise, detailing why he fails, ripping his practice, his preparation, telling missionaries to save a seat for him because he'll be joining them soon, questioning if maybe God wants him to be a backup. His Christianity and his performance linked together, both used as punch lines.
After the game, I asked him why he thought criticism of him was so fierce, so wildly personal, so often faith-based.
"Well gosh, I'm not sure. It's hard to say," Tebow said. "My faith has been a big part of my life and it's something that I feel like I show, but I don't feel like I am ever too outward about it as far as putting other people down or preaching."
"Preachy" seems to be a favorite criticism, anyway. Overhyped, overexposed, preachy and not really good all get mentioned. I witnessed none of that Thursday. Admittedly, the sample size was small, but the sincerity of the kid almost knocked me over. He's a Heisman Trophy winner, a two-time national champion and a good kid.
So we kill him. And by "we," I really mean y'all.
Full disclosure: I like this kid for all the reasons many seem to despise him. I like how he wears his faith proudly. I like how he seems to practice what he preaches. I like how he believes in himself despite waves of doubt coming from all corners. I like how he delivers punishing hits. I like what he stands for. I like his heart.
And I am not so convinced Merril Hoge is right in giggly dismissing his chances of being an NFL quarterback.
I believe Tebow may just turn into a quarterback despite his flaws. I have this thing about not betting against winners.
Or at least I am unwilling to rip him for believing he can.
If the worst thing that can be said about a kid is he believes he'll be an NFL quarterback because he believes in God, he's doing all right. He's not saying God has guaranteed him a starting job, rather that his faith in himself comes from his belief in God. I read once where Pastor Rick Warren said, "God wants to turn your test into a testimony; your mess into a message." Tebow recognizes failure can be a testimony as well, depending how one wears it.
And let's dispense with this idea that somehow Tebow already has established himself as a failure and does not belong in a Broncos QB discussion that includes Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn. All three look better equipped to step into a J Crew ad than John Elway's shoes.
This is not simply about Tebow's play, this is personal.
And even if he ends up being the worst quarterback in the history of quarterbacks, why are we OK with turning his Christianity into a punch line? If Tebow were a devout Muslim, would we snark about tenets of his religion? Or if he were Jewish? Or Buddhist? Or atheist? Or Espicopalian?.
Maybe, but those cracks would be flagged by the PC crowd almost immediately. Christianity is fair game.
In a league fraught with all kinds — sinners and saints, good guys and great talent, dog killers, vehicular manslaughterers, adulterers and a whole bunch of other "—ers" we have chosen to ignore — we hate him.
All I can figure is we just want our athletes to say sound bites about "giving all the glory to God" and leave it at that. We do not want to hear about them actually living this, and we snark on them if they do.
But I am preaching now. And this is not a sermon.
Tim Tebow's opening drive Thursday dripped with every criticism ever hurled in his vicinity.
And because this was Tim Tebow rather than, say, Brady Quinn, we heard an "amen" from an angry congregation of sports fans reveling in his fail. If Schadenfreude needs a corporate sponsor, call Twitter. Fans and journalists alike unloaded on the Broncos quarterback and his faith 140 characters at a time early and often during Thursday's preseason festivities.
Tebow in game. Let's see if he can cure leprosy.
God has decided to wait until regular season to start assisting Tebow.
God flipping over from GOP debate to watch Tebow.
All were in stark contrast to Tebow's "Joshua 1:9" pregame tweet that loosely translates to "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go," depending on your Bible of choice.
I am not a preacher. And this is not a sermon.
My message actually is just a question: Why? What about Tebow brings out such meanness in us?
Because this seems strangely personal, like some folks want him to fail, just to be able to ask, "Where's your Messiah now?" — also seen on Twitter on Thursday. I have seen columns already calling him a failure, predicting his imminent demise, detailing why he fails, ripping his practice, his preparation, telling missionaries to save a seat for him because he'll be joining them soon, questioning if maybe God wants him to be a backup. His Christianity and his performance linked together, both used as punch lines.
"Well gosh, I'm not sure. It's hard to say," Tebow said. "My faith has been a big part of my life and it's something that I feel like I show, but I don't feel like I am ever too outward about it as far as putting other people down or preaching."
"Preachy" seems to be a favorite criticism, anyway. Overhyped, overexposed, preachy and not really good all get mentioned. I witnessed none of that Thursday. Admittedly, the sample size was small, but the sincerity of the kid almost knocked me over. He's a Heisman Trophy winner, a two-time national champion and a good kid.
So we kill him. And by "we," I really mean y'all.
Full disclosure: I like this kid for all the reasons many seem to despise him. I like how he wears his faith proudly. I like how he seems to practice what he preaches. I like how he believes in himself despite waves of doubt coming from all corners. I like how he delivers punishing hits. I like what he stands for. I like his heart.
And I am not so convinced Merril Hoge is right in giggly dismissing his chances of being an NFL quarterback.
I believe Tebow may just turn into a quarterback despite his flaws. I have this thing about not betting against winners.
Or at least I am unwilling to rip him for believing he can.
If the worst thing that can be said about a kid is he believes he'll be an NFL quarterback because he believes in God, he's doing all right. He's not saying God has guaranteed him a starting job, rather that his faith in himself comes from his belief in God. I read once where Pastor Rick Warren said, "God wants to turn your test into a testimony; your mess into a message." Tebow recognizes failure can be a testimony as well, depending how one wears it.
This is not simply about Tebow's play, this is personal.
And even if he ends up being the worst quarterback in the history of quarterbacks, why are we OK with turning his Christianity into a punch line? If Tebow were a devout Muslim, would we snark about tenets of his religion? Or if he were Jewish? Or Buddhist? Or atheist? Or Espicopalian?.
Maybe, but those cracks would be flagged by the PC crowd almost immediately. Christianity is fair game.
In a league fraught with all kinds — sinners and saints, good guys and great talent, dog killers, vehicular manslaughterers, adulterers and a whole bunch of other "—ers" we have chosen to ignore — we hate him.
All I can figure is we just want our athletes to say sound bites about "giving all the glory to God" and leave it at that. We do not want to hear about them actually living this, and we snark on them if they do.
But I am preaching now. And this is not a sermon.
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