Religion, sports: How Tim Tebow won me over

There is a lot of opposition to Tim Tebow at C.C. Over the past few months, the second-year Denver Broncos quarterback has won the support of millions of people throughout Colorado and the nation, yet our campus remains a stronghold of anti-Tebow sentiment. As a newly converted fan, I am trying to understand why we are resistant, and if he would ever be able to change our minds.

For many people who feel like they missed the Tebowmania and still don’t really know who he is, this popularity may seem surprising. If you do not believe that much of our student body could actively dislike someone they do not personally know and who has little bearing on their lives, ask your classmates. A friend of mine stated that she would kick in the shins anyone that she saw “Tebowing” (the move that Tebow began in October of kneeling on the sideline in prayer, which has become a photography fad). In my half-block class, during a discussion of hatred, Tebow’s name was one of the first to be raised.
My own feelings towards Tebow started out similarly negative. As a Colorado native and long-time Broncos fan, his first-round draft selection in 2010 seemed at best an odd choice. A month earlier, we had signed Brady Quinn as a backup to then-quarterback starter Kyle Orton. So now we had three potential starting quarterbacks? To many in Denver, former coach Josh McDaniels was acting like a kid in a candy store, using our draft picks where we didn’t need them, and the acquisition of Tebow, while exciting, seemed entirely unnecessary.

More importantly for me, and I think for many Tebow-detractors at CC and elsewhere, I was turned off by Tebow’s devout, and vocal, conviction of his Christian faith. In college at the University of Florida, he would write Bible verses such as “John 3:16” in his eye black (the NFL has a policy against writing in eye black so he no longer does). And though “Tebowing” by fans has evolved somewhat to simply a sign of support, it was originally, and remains for many, a moment of prayer.

My opinion of Tebow dipped to its lowest after last year’s Superbowl, when the Colorado Springs-based organization Focus on the Family ran an anti-abortion advertisement featuring Tebow and his mother. The background of the ad was his mother’s high-risk pregnancy, which she was advised to abort or risk her own life.

I am not religious and I disagree strongly with the work of Focus on the Family, but it is certainly no right of mine to proclaim what they, and the Tebow family, can say in a television commercial. My dislike stemmed more from annoyance at having his faith shoved at me so forcefully. Though I recognized that it was ridiculous, I still felt as though the separation of church and state demands that religion be kept out of football. And Tebow’s decision to weigh in on a controversial, political issue provided me with something to attach my annoyance to. If I disagreed with his politics, I could also disagree with the man and everything else he stood for.

With my oppositional views and skepticism of Tebow’s playing abilities, I was particularly unlikely to become a supporter. But then he started winning.

After watching Kyle Orton lead the Broncos to a completely mediocre 1-4 start of the season, Tebow started against the Miami Dolphins and began his streak of late-in-the-game, come-from-behind, miraculous wins. Some of the highlights of the season included a six-game winning streak to take the Broncos to eight to five, come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter of four of those six games, and an SNL skit where Jesus tells Tebow to, “take it down a notch.” Finally, we played the favored (and probably better) Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the playoffs and won, in one of Tebow’s best games.

Then it all came crashing down in the next game against the Patriots. Honestly, I don’t care. Somehow in 13 games, Tebow had converted me to a believer, maybe not in his Lord and Savior, but in himself. All it took for me to get past my former prejudices were wins.

There is something about a winning athlete that enthralls us. A recent poll in Wisconsin showed that Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers had a higher approval rating than George Washington, Mother Theresa, and Santa Claus. Rogers was narrowly beaten only by Abraham Lincoln and Tebow’s man, Jesus Christ. Rogers and Tebow alike are proof that, for better or worse, we can put away put away more salient problems, rally behind a player or a team, and come together as a community.

Despite the embarrassing 45-10 loss to the Patriots, I am not, and I know few Broncos fans who are, embarrassed. Whatever Patriots fans might tell you about how fun it is to steam-roll teams all season and end the Cinderella story of the Broncos, I think it was more fun for us (even without a Superbowl appearance).

Once I opened up to the idea of Tebow, I also came to accept that he is, by all accounts, a really nice guy. He donates an extensive amount of time to missionary trips in the Philippines, gives speeches to prisoners, and as part of the W15H program, meets with children with life-threatening illnesses, all part of the Tim Tebow Foundation. Even at my advanced level of skepticism, it is difficult not to approve.

I am still trying to understand why people have such a problem with Tebow at C.C. Perhaps it is his politics. Perhaps it is that most of us are not from Colorado and therefore feel no allegiance to the Broncos. To these people I say, you live here. You have an excuse to support Colorado teams if you want, and I am a testament to the fact that watching Tebow becomes a lot more enjoyable once you let yourself like him.

I have also heard numerous arguments against Tebow as an athlete. Some people say he didn’t deserve to go to the playoffs with an 8-8 record. But sports are not always fair. It is not the Broncos’ fault that the AFC West was less competitive this year. Many people say that he can’t throw and therefore doesn’t deserve all the hype. True, he is wildly inconsistent with his throws and, in this regard, is somewhat of a joke when compared to many NFL quarterbacks. But, however much people may scoff at this, he has proven that he can inspire his team, which is also part of being a quarterback. Ultimately, the only statistic that matters is wins and losses, and Tebow can win when it counts.

I think many people might not like Tim Tebow simply because they are completely sick of hearing about him (although if this is you, and you have read this article up to this point, you cannot have really reached your limit). To this, I have one more response: you had better get used to it. Maybe Tebow will get injured; maybe this season was a fluke and after a few years he will fade into obscurity. But I think that is unlikely. Wherever Tebow goes in his career, I think he will perform well and his fans will follow. So I reiterate, become a fan early and maybe you can learn to love the Tebowmania.