Idk sports things but lately the name Tebow has been inescapable in popular media.
Gregg Doyel says “Go ahead, make fun of Tebow’s corny enthusiasm” cuz it works.
The Broncos won seven of the next eight. And they won those games in startling fashion, the defense holding opposing offenses in check, keeping games close enough for Tebow to pull them out in the fourth quarter. That happens once or twice, it can be written off in the locker room as a fluke. When it happens damn near every week?
People believe.
They believe in Tebow in Denver, believe in a way that wasn’t supposed to happen. His intangibles, the enthusiasm and charisma that made him so successful at Florida, weren’t supposed to matter in a league where money talks and rah-rah stuff walks. But it matters in Denver. For how long, nobody knows. Maybe this is a once-in-a-lifetime season, the Broncos swept up in the emotion of so many unlikely comebacks. Maybe the cold cynicism of professional football returns next season.
Maybe not.
Tebow isn’t going to change. Hours before Sunday’s game, with temperatures in the upper 20s, he was on the field, playing catch with members of the country band Rascal Flatts. The only teammates out so early were the kicker and punter, and everyone else was wearing hooded jackets over their uniforms. Tebow was in a tank top. It was silly but sincere, just like the way Tebow refers to his sport in shorthand. “Playing ball,” he calls his million-dollar job.
Tebow’s enthusiasm for football is childlike, and his teammates have bought into it.
“Tim has a presence about him that I’ve never been around before,” cornerback Andre’ Goodman said earlier this season. “I’ve played with some Hall of Fame players before that weren’t close to the aura that this guy has.”
This wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did. It’s happening still. The Broncos play the corporate New England Patriots on Saturday, and they can’t win that game. But then, they weren’t supposed to beat Pittsburgh. Even playing at home, against a depleted Steelers team whose quarterback was limping on a sprained ankle, the Broncos were nearly 10-point underdogs. How did they pull off the upset? There are football reasons, I’m sure. Break down the tape. See for yourself.
