I always have and always will love football. It really has over thrown baseball as "America's Pastime" in recent years. Every year there is one story in the NFL that sticks out among the rest. This year (2011) is no exception. This year it's Tebow.
You can't escape it no matter how hard you try. Every hour on Sportscenter. Every night on the news. ESPN. NFL Network. ABC. NBC. FOX News. You can't escape Tebow! Granted, all the guy does is win! As i am writing this, his team is currently 6-1 with him as a starter. He leads 4th quarter comebacks and game winning drives. He does it with his legs, where most quarterbacks win with their arms. He takes care of the football and rarely make any turnovers. He's a polarizing figure. People either love him or hate him. Why? The answer: his faith.
Tim Tebow has been very outspoken about his faith. He has a very popular book out that describes his faith in Christ in detail. In the off season, he makes his rounds in churches across the country giving motivational speeches and interviews with pastors. During his games, you see him down on one knee with his head bowed (Tebowing); a common ritual for after he scores touchdowns as well.
But then comes the critics. Players mock his knee down prayer after a sack. Other mock his outspoken faith. Some Christians are up in arms over the deliberate mocking. Those people are told to "lighten up" by members of the media and that it's "all in good fun."
Here's a question: what if Tebow wasn't a Christian? What if he was Muslim? Jewish? Buddhist? What would happen if he was mocked then? I guarantee you, people would be up in arms. The NFL commissioner would be handing out suspensions like he was handing out candy at Halloween. No one would be told to "lighten up." The player that mocked him would be told to go to counseling due to his lack of tolerance. So why then is it OK to mock Christians?
Jen Floyd Engel from foxsports.com had a great article on this the other day. In the article she says:
"His religious fervor is an easy target for the vitriol spewed from those who dislike him, but the reasons are much deeper than that. From his advocacy of abstinence to his infamous “You will never see another team play this hard” speech at Florida, it is like he is too good to be true. He is too nice, and thereby we want him to trip up so we can feel better. We want him to be revealed as a hypocrite, and when that fails to happen, we settle for gleefully celebrating his failures on the football field. And why? Because he dares to say thanks?"
-http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Tim-Tebow-why-the-heck-do-we-hate-him-110211
Do people really want to see this kid fail? I guess that is the cynical nature of our being. Instead of raising our morals to the high standard of those around us, we try to bring those with higher morals down to our level. Sad. Tragic even.
Personally, I admire Tim. I don't know him personally, but he seems like a pretty genuine guy. I don't root for him to fail by any means...unless I'm playing against him in fantasy football that is. He's accomplished a lot in his life, and every time someone tries to knock him down, he keeps fighting. He could easily respond to his critics negatively, but that's not him. He knows the eyes of the world are on him. Maybe that's unfair, but so far, he's doing a pretty good job of carrying that burden.
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