Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, survived the Oakland Raiders, their crude fans and the infamously rowdy Black Hole this past Sunday in Oakland. In fact, that crowd looked alot like the Oakland Occupy Wall Street Clockwork Orange street thugs who closed the Port of Oakland earlier in the week. Overall, it was a bad week for Oakland. Scoreboard: Broncos 38 Raiders 24. Old-fashioned decency won. Modern age crudeness lost. There is a God! Thankfully.

Tebow, media identified as "the over zealous Christian NFL quarterback in training", performed as follows against the big, bad Raiders and their brain dead fans who yelled in unison "Tebow sucks" for most of the game: 118 yards rushing and 10 of 21 for 124 yards passing with two TDs and no interceptions. 118 yards rushing as a quarterback. The fabled quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots doesn't rush those many yards in a season.

Tebow has been pilloried by the media and the sports talking heads more than anybody in the NFL in recent memory. At times this season, even his own coaches and some players on the Broncos questioned his ability to win. Why does seemingly everybody dump on Tebow in the NFL?

Tebow proved he was winner at Florida. Two national championships. Heisman trophy. Arguably, the best collegiate player of all time. Urban Meyer, his coach at Florida, called him the greatest player he has ever coached. When Tebow graduated from Florida, Meyer retired from coaching. There will never be another Tim Tebow. Why does Tebow suffer so much abuse from those who could not carry his jock strap?

Answer: people do not approve of his overt display of his faith. Makes them uncomfortable.

The unfaithful and those who do not possess the gift of faith just don't get it. Tebow gets it. So what if he wears his faith on his sleeve or on his face paint as he did in college? Bill Romanowski, ex-Raider and confessed steroid abuser said of Tebow, "I can't put him to sleep yet because he is the only virgin in the NFL." That's a confusingly unintelligent statement from a man who went to a Catholic Jesuit school, Boston College, who frankly should know better. But do those words affect Tebow? Excuse me, Tim, hell no.

In the Raider game, Tebow was beaten silly. Roughed up. Slammed to the ground head first. Hit in the chops. Sandwiched. Hi-lowed repeatedly. Blood flowed from his cut lips and mouth. That's he walking off the field after the game in the top picture. Repeatedly he got up and said to his adversaries, "God bless you." You see, Tebow is different and a cut above and it started early, in his mother's womb.

His parents were Baptist missionaries in the Philippines. When Tim was in utero, Tim's mother developed a life threatening pathogenic amoeba. She fell into a coma. Doctors awakened her and told her that the baby will be a still birth from a severe placenta abruption and that she may lose her life if the baby is delivered. The doctors advised aborting Tim. She wanted the baby. And Tim, the youngest of five, was born. Today, Tim's mother survived and living a normal life. Tim is 6'-3" and 240 pounds of pure muscle and a warrior for his God.

So, Tim almost did not even start his life. His mother had the courage and faith to give him the gift of life. That courage and faith given by his mother to her son is imbued in Tim. Football may be his public stage on Sundays but it's his daily stage of his understanding and acceptance of life, death and resurrection that is so much bigger and more important to him than football. Sadly, Tim's primary focus and perspective for most football fans is totally incomprehensible. Again that's what having faith is all about.

The day before the Raiders game, the omniscient media were piling on Tebow again, saying: "doesn't have the tools, will never be a NFL QB, won't win a game, this is his last chance, ad infinitum, ad nauseum". So what does he do? He proves all the naysayers wrong, his team wins. He wins.

I have been thinking about Tim Tebow today fresh off his team's victory and read a passage from the Book of Matthew 5:11:
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven..."

Tim Tebow has a special way of communicating to all of us. As you can see, he is inspiring me to read the Bible again. For that is worth more than any Sunday football game. Win, lose or draw.

Amen.