The rise and rise of Tim Tebow

There are few figures in American sport right now as polarising as Tim Tebow, who refuses to lose, no matter how daunting the task in front of him.

The college phenom, who was predicted by vast portions of the media to be ‘too unorthodox’ to succeed in the National Football League, surprised everyone by being taken in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos.

Coach Josh McDaniels (who was fired last year, before this amazing run of wins) saw something in Tebow that few scouts or analysts did.

And despite a decent showing at the end of last season, when Tebow was handed a few starts with the season long gone, the general consensus was that Kyle Orton gave the team a better chance to win. There reached a point where it was rumoured that even Brady Quinn had leaped ahead of number 15 in the depth chart. From Heisman winner to third-string QB… the fall from grace was complete.

Or so we thought. During a Round 5 loss to the Chargers, the predictably mediocre Orton was replaced mid-game by Tebow, who tossed a touchdown pass and ran for another, almost completing a remarkable comeback. But, anybody ‘Tebowing’ for a miracle wouldn’t have to wait very long. In Tebow’s first start of 2011, down 15-0 to the Miami Dolphins with a few minutes left on the clock, Denver’s new hero rallied them to two touchdown drives (including a two point conversion on the second) to take the game to overtime, which the Broncos duly won.

The critics wrote this off as an anomaly. For the first three and a half quarters of the game, he was terrible. The comeback was exciting, but surely a fluke. His second start was a complete mauling at the hands of the Detroit Lions… a 35-point slaughter, which pushed the Broncos to 2-5.

It seemed that the sceptics had been proven correct, and both the Denver season and the Tebow experiment were finished. That game took place in the last weekend of October; it’s now a few days before Christmas and he hasn’t lost since.

The six game winning streak that the Florida alum finds himself on has been just as unconventional and entertaining as the man himself. A swathe of late game drives to go with his first-half struggles, a sense of optimism throughout Colorado that hasn’t been associated with the football team since the days of John Elway, and a thousand arguments across ESPN programming where Tebow has been the most talked about athlete on the planet for the last month.

I can’t remember a more compelling or strange story – An Australian equivalent would be David Warner hitting 15 off the last over to win the match for Australia in six straight ODIs. It’s unfathomable.

Tebow draws the same criticism that any media darling faces – that his abilities as a sportsman are belied by the press attention and fame that he receives. A friend of mine (who has been a huge detractor of Tebow) texted me today, making the point that, “The Sunday Night Football half-time show was pretty much a 20 minute dedication to Tebow. He’s played eight and a half games and some people are comparing to Muhammad Ali and acting like he should be in the hall of fame. It’s not cool”

A fair point, and one I would agree with if we were to talk about an athlete that gains attention for their novelty rather than skill (oh hey, Danica Patrick!), but I would argue that Tebow has the perfect mix of skill, likability and a compelling story. When you hear him talk, he is the picture of humility – thanking his faith, the people around him and taking no credit for himself. As http://www.tebowing.com will attest, it’s hard not to jump on the Tebow Train.

And now this week, he faces his biggest test to date – when Tom Brady and the New England Patriots come to Mile High Stadium. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a Ravens fan, so cheering Tebow to victory this week will be even easier if he makes the Baltimore quest for a first round bye all the more straightforward.

The Denver defence (as the Tebow haters will be lightning quick to inform you) have been amazing since the quarterback change – and of course, though Tebow doesn’t play defence, there has been a newfound vigour in their play… a fire and passion that we never saw from them when Kyle Orton was on the other side of the ball.

What’s more, given the slew of fourth quarter comebacks the Broncos have been involved on down the stretch, the D is playing with a mindset that if the game is close with a few minutes left, then they will win… and in almost every game, they’ve come up with some huge plays to help their quarterback.

It started with in Miami with a sack/fumble in overtime to set up Prater’s field goal, picking of Carson Palmer three times in the win over Oakland, another overtime turnover against the Vikings and of course, forcing a fumble from Marion Barber when the Bears had already marched into field goal range and were heading towards a win.

This came after Barber inexplicably ran towards the sidelines and was pushed out of bounds, stopping the clock and allowing Tebow just under a minute of regulation time to drive up the field and set up Prater’s game tying kick (had he just flopped to the ground inbounds, the Broncos would have had a mere 17 seconds with the ball and almost no chance), which was just the latest in a string of strange events that have resulted in Tebow wins. Onside kick recoveries, timely giveaways by the opponents in overtime, field goals from absurd distances and of course, a bit of Tebow magic.

Yes, Tebow has been awful for the opening three quarters of games, for the most part. But when the pressure is on late in the game, and his team needs a scoring drive (or two!) he continues to get it done. And as is usually the case in America, sports icons are judged by their ability to perform in the clutch.

It’s why LeBron James is so often unfairly criticised, and part of what separates James from the game’s last two megastars, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan… who have dozens of game winning shots each, and enough rings between them to open a jewellery store.

ESPN’s Total QBR rating system has Tebow as the 30th best QB in the league, but the featured stat of the week on Sportscenter seems to be that in the last nine minutes of games, his QBR is the highest of any player in the league. Better than Brady, Rodgers or Brees, which is insanity.

So it seems that one of two scenarios will win out; his fourth quarter heroics will eventually cease and he’ll fade into a gimmick player/backup, or he’ll become a well-rounded player across four quarters of a game, not just the last few minutes.
Tebow came out of college with the aura of a winner and an inspirational leader.

It’s clear that his intangible qualities have been just as vital to the Broncos’ turnaround as anything else – his passion for the game and will to succeed are visceral, with every action he takes on the field and everything he says off of it (as evidenced in his half-time speech during the 2008 National Championship Game).

If he fails, there will be naysayers flocking around to tell the rest of the world that they told us so. Is Tebow going to be the starting QB in Denver for years to come? Who knows, as his coach John Fox said yesterday, “We just kind of stay in the present.”

So, with that in mind, let’s just hope he can overcome the Patriots this Sunday.