Tim Tebow: Let’s All Lay Off

TAMPA — It’s Halloween and as a treat I’m going to talk about something off-topic and a little scary. Now I bet you all made your cliched Tim Tebow Halloween joke but what I’m addressing isn’t Tebow’s play but the reaction and childish and moronic analysis of his second start.

Can we all just stop being chumbalones and relax for a minute on Tim Tebow. I understand that everyone and their Grandmother is itching to see Tebow fail for some reason but the kid has started twice this season and we’re already going to write him off?

That’s my issue with this whole thing. I know Tebow isn’t untouchable, in fact I am and have been one of his biggest critics since his days of burying my Florida State Seminoles. But the reaction to his performance Sunday is overboard and below the belt.

"Imagine if the same thing was happening to Josh Freeman. How would you react. Imagine if you heard the mainstream sports media not only defending outrageous and ridiculous fan reaction but halfway endorsing it?"

Let’s analyze the proper way Tebow’s first two NFL starts this season. They weren’t good; not by a long shot. But they weren’t terrible.

Nobody is expecting Tebow to come in and win the Super Bowl, Denver is not that good of a football team. Their defense is terrible and the weapons on offense were damning of Kyle Orton’s performance too. This isn’t all Tebow’s fault and that is something that needs to be recognized very quickly.

I absolutely hate how whenever a quarterback fails and fails the way Tebow did on Sunday, that the popular thing to do is regurgitate whatever ESPN tells you to think about him. Get a backbone and analyze this for yourself. Tebow didn’t play a good game, but my three year old niece could see that, what’s the over reaction for?

"Put yourself in Tebow’s shoes and take a step back to look at the bigger picture.Which is: IT’S JUST A GAME OF FOOTBALL!"

Tebow was never supposed to be the second coming of anyone like Andrew Luck is being touted. We all knew when Tebow declared for the draft that he was a serious work in progress and his extraordinary college skills wouldn’t translate to the NFL. So why are we so shocked and appalled that he has had a very rough start? This was expected and now that it’s actually happening we’re surprised?

Ignorance is bliss isn’t it?

Before I get into the childish cheap shots at Tebow and his life, lets just take one final moment to be adults and look at the situation for what it’s worth. Tebow throws at his receivers, not to them. That is his issue and I saw it numerous times on Sunday. The reason he got away with it in Miami is the Dolphins are a terrible football team. The Detroit Lions boast one of the best defenses in the NFL. Again, are we really shocked that in inexperienced quarterback struggled against them? Where were the fake prayer poses when the Lions destroyed Matt Cassel in week 2.

And just to keep  Buc fans in check, the Lions mauled Josh Freeman week one so we are the last people who get to rip Tebow.

Which brings me to my next point: the Tebowing. I’m not against giving a guy who thinks he’s better than everyone a few pop shots but this destruction of Tim Tebow on a personal level is just neanderthal-ish on every level folks.

I admit, I am not the worlds biggest Tim Tebow fan, in fact I wanted him to fail from the start, but I’m not about to pile it on and attack

him on a personal level the way a lot of people out there are. It’s sick.

Grow up people, this is the 21st Century. Long gone are the days where we don’t know how to treat other people. This is my major quarrel with pro sports: it’s fans.

A lot of fans are great; Bucs fans for example are some of the greatest fans I’ve ever encountered. From my cross country trips to road games and getting to mingle with Bucs Nation all over the map, it’s proven to me that the Buccaneers have the best fans in the NFL.

But some people just don’t know when to quit. You know these people: the guys who never made it past the high school football team and want to let out their angst at the guys who get paid millions to do what they wish they could. These are the guys who ruin football and all sports for that matter.

And I say guys because from my numerous professional sporting encounters, never have women acted as infantile and embarrassing as the men.

It’s these chumbalones who are showing their unwanted faces and accompanying it it with their unwelcome voices. I was outraged to see my Twitter feed blow up with just ridiculous and disgusting “Tewbowing”. Again, I’m not a Tebow fan or a Tebow apologist, but I do draw the line when a guy is attacked on a personal level because of the way he played in a sporting event that bares no impact on the world outside of sports.

Is it the God thing? Do people not like that? last time I checked he toned down his religious side. Or is that what’s bothering people; that he toned it down?

Is it because he was so good in college people want him to be flawed? I dont’ get the Tebow hate. Outside of his terrible play on Sunday there is nothing left to say about him other than in reference to his bad accuracy or his bad play calling.

And not everyone is engaged in full on Tebow hate. Not everyone is getting off on putting him underground, but it’s the many bad apples that are ruining it for all of us.

I’ll leave you with this: imagine if the same thing was happening to Josh Freeman. How would you react. Imagine if you heard the mainstream sports media not only defending outrageous and ridiculous fan reaction but halfway endorsing it? Put yourself in Tebow’s shoes and take a step back to look at the bigger picture.

Which is: IT’S JUST A GAME OF FOOTBALL!

It’s come to this, me having to dumb it down to ‘it’s just a game’ when to me it’s a lifestyle. But when idiots start to get disgusting with how they treat the game and their respect dies for those who play it, thus does mine for those people. Bucs fans aren’t involved in this, I know you aren’t because you’re all smart people (especially if you’re reading The Pewter Plank), but let’s distance ourselves, like the smart people we are, from those who take football way too seriously (and that’s a pretty big statement coming from me) and moron to a whole new level.