The Obligatory Tim Tebow Post

Tebow Tebowing

It is no secret that Tim Tebow has become an international phenomenon. Go to any search engine and he is most likely a top 10 search, twitter or blog topic or news story. ESPN literally talks about him on a daily basis. They might as well create a separate network dedicated to Tebow fodder. After a 1-4 start, Denver was forced to make a change (most coming from the Broncos fanbase) and went with Tim Tebow. After a prolific college career at Florida, Tebow lacked what many NFL analyst described as "fundamentals" or "mechanics" to play at the professional level (we'll come back to this is a second), but somehow overcame the odds and landed a starting gig in the NFL. Now as overwhelmingly cheesy as this premise sounds (which is exactly what it is), national and international media knew that it could sell products and ran with it.

Now I would like to start off by saying that I am neither a Tebow supporter nor detractor. I am totally indifferent. Is he the most talented QB? Not by a long shot. Is he the luckiest QB? Definitely. With that said, I also understand the racial dynamics at play here. The drop back/conventional white quarterback is still king in the National Football League. Any deviation from that mold is either moved to another position or given a very short lease (see a long list of athletic/mobile black QBs). Before (and largely still) the Doug Williamses or Warren Moons, the NFL was highly biased against black quarterbacks. They didn't feel that they possessed the intelligence, skillset, or technical mechanics to play the QB position. These are the same arguments being made against Tim Tebow and yet there he is out there on the field. He has successfully become the Eminem of the NFL. Here is a very interesting conversation on ESPN about Tebow and race.

It is a bit long, but here is the intriguing point. Kordell Stewart makes a passionate plea for the NFL to give young black QBs a chance to fail as much as Tebow has and I couldn't agree more.

Another rookie QB did get a chance and played extremely well. Cam Newton also struggled with the same criticism coming out of college (me included) and proceeded to light the NFL up, breaking records in the process. Yet his name is not splashed all over the media or ESPN on a daily basis simply because he played on a much worse team and didn't have the luck or skin color Tebow has. It also needs to be pointed out that Tebow played in a much less talented league than Cam Newton (AFC West vs NFC North who had 2 teams reach the playoffs). The Broncos finished the year 8-8 and were able to HOST a wild card playoff game against the defending AFC champion Steelers, who went 12-4. Believe me, I hate the Steelers, and was happy to see them lose, but in no way shape or form is allowing an 8-8 team host a playoff game fair. I would say the same thing about last years 7-9 Seahawks as well.

So the question becomes; Is Tim Tebow getting preferential treatment because he is white? Discuss.

I just thought this was funny. I'm a Skins fan for life, but will be secretly cheering for Bmore come Sunday.