So, just going to get this out of the way right now. I do not like people preaching to me. I went to a parish school from Kindergarten to 8th grade, then Jesuit schools for high school and college. I have had quite enough of people telling me what my beliefs should be, how I should live my life, how I should vote and view people of other faiths. That said, though, I could not care less what your religion or faith or belief system is, as long as it is a personal thing, and not being forced into the public discourse. Tim Tebow is a man of faith, a great deal of it, in fact. Now, if that was all, I would not care. If he only praised his savior every press conference, ok yeah whatever. Not a problem. Focus on the Family involvement and endorsement? Well….they’re what I like to call a hate group, actively promoting the superiority of their faith, as well as bitter prejudice against homosexuals and non-Christians. So there are points lost there. He begins to rapidly approach the level of that one guy in college that came into the student government office at BC (remember, a Jesuit school) and telling me how I was going to Hell because I was baptized as a Catholic. Or maybe that one woman who said she would pray for my children because I would not pick either Catholicism or Judaism (the religious heritage of my wife) for my kids, instead exposing them to both cultures.
That, however, is not why I loathe Tim Tebow. I might just consider him a slang term for male anatomy, but that would be it. No, there’s more. (After the video…)
The reason is that he has been placed on a mythical pedestal, being lauded as the under-appreciated hero, an upright and just man, overcoming all adversity simply by his faith. Also, he has been adopted as a warrior for those who are so desperate to find some way to show everyone who does not share the same kind of faith in their deity of choice that they are, in fact, better than the rest of us by virtue of their hero. ESPN does entire shows about him, sports announcers sing his praises and overlook every flaw. Columnists write columns about him, wishing Obama and other world leaders could be more like Tebow. Posters of him bowing and kneeling in supplication everywhere you look.
On top of all that, he is really a terrible quarterback. Simply awful. Tonight’s game against the Patriots showed that. Not just because the Pats demolished them in a manner more befitting the Walls Of Jericho, but because never once in the game did he assume any sort of leadership, poise, and fight to try and show the Pats that he meant business. His play was spotty, his passes for the most part weren’t wobbling ducks, they were more like cartwheeling penguins flung from a catapult. He simply could not deliver, despite his teammates trying desperately to try and make him do so.
This entire time we have been preached to, having so many people tell us that he deserves football fans’ praise and adulation not because he is a great player, but because he is a moral, upright guy with deep faith and hatred for gays and the idea that a woman has any say about anything that happens with her body.So not only, in my eyes, does he deserve my scorn, but he’s also an awful football player. Tebow and his ilk at Focus On The Family are constantly talking about how things are being forced down their throats. Well, at least he won’t be forced down mine for several months, and for that, I am both grateful and proud to be a Patriots fan.