For better or worse, Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is the most compelling individual — not just athlete — in America today.
Everyone knows who Tebow is, or at least one would expect as much by now.
Yet, some weeks back, an old friend of mine asked me who he was, why he was so famous and why everyone cared so much about a guy who played football.
That’s when it hit me like a wobbly Tebow pass: How do you explain Tebowmania to someone who has never witnessed it? The conversation was comparable to that of breaking down Aggie traditions to a newcomer.
The answer: It’s the story — the journey of his life and his religious beliefs — that sets Tebow apart.
“We all have life experiences that can bless the lives of others,” Tebow writes in his book Through My Eyes. “Whoever we are. Wherever we find ourselves. Whatever we are involved in, no matter our age or station in life.”
To an outsider, Tebow’s obsessive following by fans and media makes no sense. Here is a player who, on his best days at the professional level, manages to complete only half of his passes. He typically disappears from the stats sheet for three and a half quarters, flips his inner-switch to “Tebow Time” and then pulls off a miraculous comeback in the closing minutes.
But “Tebow Time” does not always guarantee a victory. No, he fumbles. Sometimes he throws an untimely interception. Or he just gets sacked trying to run for his life.
If Tebowmania was defined by nothing except highlight-reel comebacks, then we as a society would be wasting our attention, right?
At every major junction, Tebow has managed to prove his critics wrong, whether that was winning national championships, the Heisman Trophy, or becoming a first-round NFL draft pick. He wasn’t supposed to succeed with his long, windup throwing motion. His running game — the Tebow jump pass, those furious scrambles up the field — were not meant to succeed against pro defenses.
And yet none of those aspects of Tebow’s fame are what drives his following. It is his outspokenness and adherence to Christianity that fuels the controversial fire. Where Tebow is the ultimate competitor and team leader, he is also the symbol of America’s never ending religious debate.
I once listened to someone tell me I must hate God for criticizing one of Tebow’s quarterbacking performances. Somehow the two could not be separated, and it was either forgive Tebow for his lack of production that particular day or exempt him from criticism all together.
What some fail to realize is that Tebow’s devotion to God exempts him from nothing and grants him no special football privileges. Tebow the quarterback and Tebow the believer are two separate personas that make up one individual.
When Tebow drops back in the pocket and scans the field he’s not thinking, “God has my back on this one,” before he chucks the ball down field. He’s thinking about defensive coverages and finding open receivers. The man is out there to score points, win games, work hard and earn a paycheck while he’s at it.
Tebow the believer? He thanks God for allowing him to win those games. He thanks God for his teammates time and time again. And when Tebow is not around football, he travels the globe spreading the Christian gospel through his own charitable foundation.
“God challenges us to change the world,” Tebow wrote. “And to accomplish this, He asks us to change it one life at a time.”
Those who adhere to Tebow’s beliefs tend to want these two personas to be one and the same. They want Tebow’s on-field success to be attributed directly to his beliefs. Several Republican presidential candidates have reportedly even reached out to Tebow for a political endorsement, only to be refused.
I shudder at the thought of a quarterback being viewed as an election game-changer.
Tebow is not a messiah. He is not working the miracles of God in football. And one does not have to be a believer in Christianity in order to appreciate his competitive spirit and accolades.
Revel in Tebowmania. Go on a “Tebowing” spree, if you must. But remember, he’s just Tim Tebow:
Man. Quarterback. Believer in God.
Jared Baxter is a senior media telecommunications major