How good is Tim Tebow really...

MINORITY REPORT INTRO COURTESY OF DEADSPIN.COM...

With apologies to Slate, the Tim Tebow Messiah Watch is our occasional look at the growing body of evidence — quotes, signs and wonders, excessively fawning prose — that the Florida quarterback is the Lamb of God.

Today's piece of evidence comes from Florida's sloppy 29-19 over Mississippi State, against whom Tebow threw two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns.

Witness: Mark Long, Associated Press
Testimony: "[Tebow] is clearly getting disheartened with his team's offensive woes. He blew off his postgame interview session for the first time in three years in Starkville, Miss."
Pertinent Scripture: Matthew 21:12-17

"Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant.

"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him.

"Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"

And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night."

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Sportynation, we have been told over and over again that Tim Tebow is the greatest college football player of all time and maybe even the greatest college athlete ever. He has phenomenal stats and has been called one of the greatest leaders of all time. In addition to that, he works harder than everyone else and cares more than everyone else.

However, is Tim Tebow really the greatest college football player ever? Could he be the greatest college athlete of all time? I say no, and below I'll explain why.

Before this year, it is beyond reasonable to argue that he was not the best player in his own huddle. During Tebow's freshman year, Chris Leak was the starting QB and the defacto leader. Tebow came in sporadically and vultured TDs away frequently. That same year another freshman on the same team by the name of Percy Harvin won SEC freshman of the year. Not Tebow.



That same Percy Harvin was back and even better his sophomore year and greatly contributed to Tebow's great season and Tebow's Heisman trophy. That year the UF and the Heisman trophy winner went 9-4 and lost to a Michigan team in transition despite being favored to win.

Tebow's junior year, Percy Harvin went absolutely beast mode. He played almost EVERY skill position. He dominated special teams, half back, running back, the slot, and both the "X" and "Z" receiver positions. Harvin was that x factor type guy. His speed and talent was so good he had to be tolerated and pacified no matter what. Harvin had many missteps during his career. In high school he was suspended multiple times one of which was having contact with a referee. Then, in college he was highly suspected and rumored to be smoking reefer quite frequently and fighting with coaches and players. That being said, he started and started all day everyday. However, that Harvin wasn't the only good player during that season. Lesser know, Louis Murphy also played on that same team and made Tebow's life easy. So, that's two count em two starting NFL WRs which means a national championship and another Tebow explosion. Maybe Tebow was the best player on that team and there is an extraordinary argument that he was, but you can argue that he was not the best player in the huddle.



Finally, we have Tebow's senior year. Tebow is clearly by far and away the best player on this year's team, but the team's offense is struggling tremendously. The can't move the ball consistently and the greatest college player of all time consistently has games that look like this 5-10 passing for 123 yards and a TD, and 20 rushes for 50 yards and a TD. UF returned practically the same team which is 18 of 21 starters (two of the players missing are were draftable wide receivers, but the team seems to be worse. Conspiracy theorists would say that perhaps if UF did not have the referees in their backpockets they would have 1 loss this year and maybe even 2 losses, but they do have the refs (as evidence by the entire UF ref crew being suspended a game for its diligent attempts to keep the SEC powers undefeated.

This year, Tim Tebow has not been the best player in the nation, but the media and many SEC fans still want him to be. So, he'll get it over the tremendously deserving Case Keenum and Mark Ingram and Tebow will be considered better than Herschel Walker, Archie Griffin, Dick Butkus, Earl Campbell, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders (ran for 2,628 yards 7.64 yards per carry avg. while scoring 37 touchdowns in 11 regular-season games both of which are still NCAA single-season), Walter Payton, Red Grange, Tony Dorsett, Jim Thorpe, Vince Young, and Charles Woodson. However, he shouldn't be considered the greatest college football player ever for a multitude of reasons.



Sportynation, I'll leave you with this. Can you be the greatest college player ever when there is significant doubt that you can even play your position at the next level. Sportynation, I'm not saying start and be a pro bowler at the next level, I am saying play the same position and
contribute somewhat meaningfully. Quite a few of the Tebow lovers say that he can do it, and the "haters" such as me, pro scouts and people in the NFL say that he cannot or are skeptical.
I'm not sure, but I've never seen this much doubt surrounding the all time greatest player ever or even an all time great in my life. Sportynation, we don't even know if this guy can take a snap from the center and do a 3, 5, or 7 step drop. He hasn't done this consistently in college and maybe never his senior year. It is entirely possible that the Coach Urban Meyer (CUM) and his spread offense and history with QBs is more at play. See Alex Smith and Chris Leak rather than Tebow's supremacy. if that's a word.

Sportynation, I can only think that Tim Tebow is the football's version of Christian Laettner (and probably worse than Laettner) which is to say he is a supremely talented, gifted, special, dominant college player with each and every accolade, but also with a plethora of questions. Laettner won national championships, owns a million NCAA records, and a plethora of player of the year awards, was drafted #3 overall in the NBA draft, and was a part of the greatest professional national team ever, the Dream Team. Tebow has his fair share of accolades as well. Only, time will tell just how successful Tebow is and can and will be.



In closing, Ken Dorsey led the hurricanes to the 2001 national championship, whom was a bad pass interference call from winning two national championships, and had a 38-2 record as starter. He was, like Tebow, a winner. Dorsey was a 2 time Archie Griffin Award winner, the 2 time NCAA QB of the Year, and a 2 time Heisman trophy finalist. However, he played with Willis McGahee, Kelen Winslow, Andre Johnson, and Bryant McKinney to name a few. Perhaps just perhaps, one can not be the greatest player ever because of how decorated he is, and maybe the talent around said player can prop him up too much. It is impossible to know just how much a player is propped up, but we can not overlook this factor.



This is my Minority Report.

ARod is one of the worst ever...

"That boy sholl can sang." "Yeah, he real good." "Good and turrrible."-Coming to America (Rrrrrrrrrandy Watson performance)

And, so is ARod...



SIKE. ARod is one of the all time greats.

Dan LeBatard yesterday on his radio show pointed out the inherent unfair criticism of Alex Rodriguez and the overwhelmingly positive critique of Derek Jeter in one sentence.

"If ARod went to Afghanistan on an off day, found Bin-Laden and killed him, people would still say that Jeter secretly gave him the map."

Quickly, ARod has been better than Jeter in most every offensive category regular season and post season. In addition to that ARod is better defensively than Jeter. The only things that Jeter has that ARod doesn't have are 4 world championship rings and the media's backing.

Sportynation, rings may seem like a huge, huge thing, but it's a team sport. So, you can't say that Jeter won 4 championships. Jeter played on some of the best teams ever. No one player can win 4 baseball championships. There are too many factors for that to be the case. Jeter had superior pitching and hitters around him. Had Derek Jeter played for the Kansas City Royals or the Pittsburgh Pirates, he would more than likely have 0 championships, significantly lower statistics, and would be seen in a completely different light than he currently is. In fact, I would argue that the media would see him as just a good player. Hanley Ramirez will more than likely never be seen in the same light as Derek Jeter, but he seems to be significantly better. No?

Sportynation, this is my Minority Report.

Jay Cutler is one of the All-Time Greats!

The Chicago Tribune launched an exceedingly interesting article today by Rick Morrissy titled "Is Jay Cutler the second coming of Tom Brady." However, let's not overlook that two weeks ago Morrissy had two count em two articles criticizing Cutler greatly. One of the articles was titled "Someone must tell Jay Cutler to wise up" and the other was titled "Jay Cutler leaves you with somewhat empty feeling."

My question is which is it? Is Cutler horrible or is Cutler fantastically great and destined for the Hall of Fame?

As my biggest influence Dan LeBatard says I dunno...maybe. The point is (repeat after me) WE DO NOT KNOW. We can't know. The typical sports guy, however, is omniscient. The typical sports guy falls into the trap of changing his or her beliefs and opinions immediately after results and does NOT pay attention to sample size and qualitative factors such as situation and circumstance. With the typical sports guy all perspective is lost and knee jerk reactions occur early and often. In addition to that, the typical sports guy models his or her opinion with and after the results. For example, Jay Cutler is terrible after a bad game v. Jay Cutler may be the next Tom Brady after two good games. As human beings it is evolutionarily advantageous to produce theories and opinions about the world that we live in, however, we still shouldn't be lazy and should be cognizant of the plethora of factors at play.

Sportynation, we as people that enjoy sports should be more responsible and NOT lazy. Internalize and think about what is happening and at play and stick to it. That is not to say that you should be unbendable or stubborn, but flip flopping CONSTANTLY and lacking a true genuine opinion is unacceptable. Lastly, be able to admit when you are wrong. Sportynation, I will content that if you aren't lazy and think before acting prematurely and crazily, you won't fall into the trap of the typical sports guy and will have added credibility and a greater understanding of sports which inturn should present you with an unquestionable satisfying feeling.

Sportynation, keep it real and THINK. This is my MINORITY REPORT.

I am NO sports fan.

A fan, aficionado, or supporter is someone who has an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking and enthusiasm for a sporting club, person, group of persons, company, product, activity, work of art, idea, or trend.

The aforementioned relatively positive definition of fans does not necessarily convey the true meaning or connotation of what fans, indeed, are. Fans are irrational individuals that have unrealistic expectations and behavior.

On Sept. 16, two fans admitted to Hamburg, NY police that they had spray-painted messages of frustration in the form of profanity and the final score of last week's Monday Night Football game on McKelvin's front lawn in the Briercliff Estates subdivision off Amsdell Road about 2 a.m. Sept. 15 because of his fumble that cost the Bills the game. Under what circumstance is it acceptable to deface one's home because of something that happens at work that is a part of the job? Mistakes are expected at work. Would would happen if me or you made a mistake at work? Probably not what happened to McKelvin. Everyone fumbles in the NFL. Adrian Peterson fumbled the ball 9 times last year. I mean do we think that McKelvin tried to fumble the ball? Or do we think that Peterson fumbled the ball intentionally?

Not to be outdone, someone stole $400,000 worth of jewelry from Buffalo Bills safety Donte Whitner's home while he was at Ralph Wilson Stadium for a home game.

Whitner spokeswoman Patricia Horton tells The Associated Press that Whitner found out about the larceny after Sunday's win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Whitner, who lives in the suburb of Hamburg, returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown in the Bills' 33-20 win.

Horton says Whitner is upset and hurt by the theft and is on "high alert" because he doesn't know who is responsible.

She says he isn't interested in pressing charges and just wants his belongings back.

The theft comes a week after teammate Leodis McKelvin's front lawn was vandalized by two teenagers following Buffalo's loss to New England.

Where is the ridiculous fandom you may ask. The irrational fanaticism can be found on the bottom of the ESPN page that reported the story in the conversation part. There have been more than 719 posts and a overwhelming number of them have been negative.

I have included 3 of the first few posts

"$400,000.00 WORTH OF JEWERLY???? ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME!!! YOU DESERVED TO BE ROBBED FOR BEING SO STUPID!!!" and "Really, REALLY hard to feel sympathy for a person who, 1. spends $400,000 on jewelry; and 2. leaves it lying around his home." and "$400,000 worth of jewelry but doesn't have a $40 a month alarm system to protect it. You do the math!"

The 3 aforementioned posts are the epitome of irresponsible fandom. Fans blame the player for being robbed, fans are incredibly jealous of the athlete but continue to support him, fans analyze athlete's purchases, fans think that athletes are to blame for everything that occurs, and fans think that they WOULD act differently if they were the professional athlete.

On April 30 during a quarterfinal match with Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg in which Monica Seles was leading 6–4, 4–3, Günter Parche, an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf, ran from the middle of the crowd to the edge of the court during a break between games and stabbed Seles with a boning knife between her shoulder blades, to a depth of 1.5 cm (.59 inches). Parche admitted that he stabbed Seles to help Graf regain the No.1 ranking. She was quickly rushed to a hospital. Although her physical injuries took only a few weeks to heal, she did not return to competitive tennis for more than two years. Fans desperately want to be a part of athlete's lives and fans take matters into their own hands literally and figuratively.

People often times accuse me of being an apologist for professional athlete's. However, I am no apologist. I am a realist that has quite a bit of perspective. The thing that I always try to remember is that these people are just like me and you... just with significantly more money and exposure. These athletes have moms, dads, wives, significant others, children, friends, bills, headaches, and pretty much everything that WE as regular old folks have. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I can't and don't judge them. That is, I can't be mad at them for buying expensive jewelry, a yacht, multiple houses or whatever. It's their money. I can't tell them what to do with their money. And, I certainly can't say what I would do if I were them. We have to always remember that we think we know what's going on with athlete's but we have no idea. There are many things that happen under the surface and behind the scenes that we can never know is going on.

My cousin Vinny, sent me this article about Ray Lewis that was in Sports Illustrated many many years ago. Check it out. It's a great quick read.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/2000/12/08/yir_lewis/

Sporty nation, this is my Minority Report.

The typical sports guy/media is lazy and irresponsible

Sonny Jurgensen tries to GET Jim Zorn...

Plenty of fans and analysts have questioned the 3rd-and-5 play call midway through the third quarter, when Jim Zorn dialed up a halfback option to Clinton Portis, whose pass fell incomplete in the end zone. The Redskins then settled for their third field goal. Legendary Redskins quarterback and radio analyst Sonny Jurgensen was among those who questioned the call, but he did so while talking with Zorn during the postgame show.

"Third down, I'm the quarterback, and you call the halfback throwing the ball for me, I'm calling timeout or calling an audible," Jurgensen said. "I'm not letting the halfback throw it. That's what you pay me for."

"Well then, I would have to take you out of the game," Zorn countered. "As soon as you called timeout, I'd say what's wrong with my play, because...."

"It didn't work!" Jurgensen interrupted.

There was a long pause.

"No, but I called it to work. Alright?" Zorn said. "We called it to work. It didn't work. There were a lot of plays out there that didn't work. And I'd take you out of the game. Sorry, Sonny."

Zorn was also asked about that play during his Monday press conference.

"It was a play we had in our gameplan, it wasn't a grab bag," Zorn said. "And we thought if we showed run...because we had been running edge runs with Clinton on the goal line. And I thought, 'All right, here it is.' And Clinton has thrown touchdown passes before. Well what happened was, when we came off the line of scrimmage, we came off backing up, and when the [Rams] saw that, they just played it right down the line. The safety felt that this was gonna be a pass....And so we had to kick a field goal."

Zorn was then asked if he was still happy with his play-calling in the red zone; "Yeah, I am," he said. "I mean, if I could see it now, if I could see every play that was gonna fail before it failed, I'm with you. I wouldn't call it. But I felt very confident, because we work on it. We have to execute it, and I use that word sometimes, but we work on it. It's not a grab bag situation. Now I'm gonna go back and study it more, and I'm gonna be hard on myself as well, which is what I do. And we'll see what happened."

The typical sports guy plays the results and has simplistic lazy beliefs and declarations. That is, is Zorn's halfback pass play works he's a genius or Zorn saw an opportunity in the game and capitalized greatly. I mean cmon. It's a bad play call because it doesn't work.

The typical sports guy showed up again this week when he criticized Ted Ginn for dropping a pass in the final minutes of the Monday Night Football game against the Colts. Nevermind, Ginn had one of his greatest games of his young career on that same night (11 catches for 108 yards) or that he is not a Randy Moss type talent who's game is predicated on snatching balls out of the air in traffic and coverage. That's not his game. He is a speedster with ok hands. Get him the ball and let him run.



In the same night, the typical sports guy, also criticized head coach Tony Sparano for running the ball on 3rd down. The typical sports guy exclaimed that you HAVE to pass the ball on 3rd down in that spot and that if you don't pass the ball and go for the run you are not playing for the win and are playing for a field goal. This is probably the most infuriating assertion for a plethora of reasons. First, Why in the heck would a head coach that is 0-1 and on the verge of 0-2 not go for the win? Of course he is trying to go for the win. Next, Miami had 45 minutes of possession Monday night because of there great ability to run the ball. The Dolphins had 239 yards rushing the ball that night and were running the ball easily and efficiently. Lastly, and most importantly, Chad Pennington made the final decision. Once on the field, he was to read the defense/coverage and then make a decision. He went run. Not sure how you can call out Sparano there. Pennington is said to be the 2nd smartest QB in the league and ALLEGEDLY one of the most accurate passers in the league. Also, don't forget he was second in AFC MVP voting last year...

Sportynation, the typical sport's guy is a dangerous, dangerous person. He is everywhere. It's ok to second guess and criticize, but perspective is necessary. Hindsight is 20-20 and Monday Morning quarterbacking is soooooo old. Let's not be lazy and let's try to think. Let's use our brains and stop being so ridiculous.

This is my Minority Report.

Reason #321 why THE NFL is better than cawledge football

In caw-ledge football people VOTE on the winner!

5 reasons why the UF will NOT repeat

The Florida Gators are the prohibitive favorites to win the national championship. The Gators return practically every player from a team that was dominant last year and lost by one point to an up and coming Ole Miss. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut they probably won’t win. There are 5 reasons below…

Reason #1

That being said, don't forget that the Florida Gators have never won a national championship without losing a game. They were 12-1 in 1996 and should NOT have played in the championship game as just a few weeks before their encounter with the dominant Florida State Seminoles in the championship game, they lost to the same Florida State team in the regular season finale. Then, in 2006 they demolished an outmatched Ohio State team that has built a reputation of being a slow Big Ten Team (Gator fans please don't forget that Chris Leak was the offensive MVP for the game and a major reason that Florida won this game...Tebow was on the team and contributed, but let's not forget Leak, plus Percy Harvin was the SEC's freshmen of the year), and finally last year the Gators beat the highest scoring team in college football history by 10 points. This was probably the most rewarding championship as they showed off their superior coaching, skill, talent, and game management against an exceedingly worthy opponent.

Reason #2

The Oklahoma Sooners last night reminded us just how fragile one's season is and how close yet so far away a national championship is. A BYU LB, in a routine, legal, clean, textbook tackle took the raining Heisman trophy winner out of the game last night at the end of the 1st half. An already challenging game quickly became an exceedingly unwinnable game. Despite having All-Americans at every position, the Sooners lost the game without their consensus #1 NFL draft pick and could be lose more games. Now, there is far too much uncertainty swirling around Bradford. What happens if Tebow is taken out of a game due to injury for an extended period of time? Perhaps a loss occurs or losses.



Reason #3

The Gators have a conference championship game in a relatively strong conference which means that they have one more opportunity to lose. That is, they have the “luck” of playing an additional game (against a good team of course) when most other teams across the nation do not have conference championship games, and if they do it probably won’t be against as quality of an opponent.

While this is undoubtedly a roadblock, the Gators benefit from a very reasonable schedule. Despite what the national media will lead you to believe, every SEC team does not have the hardest schedule in the nation or ever. To further clarify, each team in the SEC does not play the same schedule. And, the difficulty of schedule fluctuates tremendously. The 3 most difficult games that the Gators play are against an 0-1 Georgia Bulldog team, a perennially good LSU team, and an underrated Florida State team. This schedule is no better or worse than most any team in a power conference.



Reason #4

Karma!

Tim Tebow has been shoved down the nation’s throat repeatedly and been glorified from day one.

It all started during a game in "The Swamp" in 2006, the fans booed then starting quarterback Chris Leak. Leak at the time, was leading the Gators' charge to a national title (which they eventually won) and praising the freshman Tebow.

Last year, following Florida's lone loss last season to Ole Miss, Tebow made a post-game promise. During the press conference, a teary-eyed Tebow said, "''To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I'm sorry. I'm extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here. ''I promise you one thing. A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. ''You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. ''God bless." This speech further solidified his place in the hearts of everyone and pushed his “situation” to epic unreasonable irrational ridiculousness.



Now there is a plaque outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with this “speech”. Just 2 hours north, Bobby Bowden coached for 28 years and received a statue in front of Doak Campbell Stadium. It took Tebow a weekend to achieve this statue.

The media seems to be in love with Tim Tebow. On ESPN, Tebow has been called perhaps the greatest college football player ever. No matter what network Florida plays on any given Saturday, the announcers tend to slobber over this guy. In a Florida victory over arch-rival Florida State, CBS play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist said of Tebow, "He's the kind of guy you would want your daughter to marry". Tebow's double-clutch jump-pass against LSU in 2006 is Fox Sports Net's ad for the SEC coming to its network. I can't count how many times I have watched Tebow's mission trip to his native Philippines shown on ESPN. During a Florida basketball game against Kentucky two years ago, ESPN used Tebow for a spoof of College Gameday. Tebow walked into a locker room and hyped up ESPN basketball analysts, Hubert Davis, Rece Davis, Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas as a promo for the show. During last season's BCS Championship Game, Fox's Thom Brennaman said, "If you're fortunate enough to spend five or twenty minutes around Tim Tebow, you're better for it."

Next, and probably most unfairly, you are only able to say exceedingly glorious things about Tebow. If you say anything other than praise, you are labeled as a hater, un-American, evil, unobjective, or a person with an agenda.

Earlier this month Florida State's Bobby Bowden made a comparison to a former Heisman winner. Bowden claimed that Tebow was not a good as former Seminole Charlie Ward. Ward led Florida State to the 1993 National Championship in football and the Elite Eight in basketball. He was labeled with the “unobjective” label.




After Tebow was awarded the 2007 Heisman Trophy, then Hawaii coach June Jones called Tebow a "System quarterback" after Tebow beat out Jones' quarterback Colt Brennan. He was labeled with the “hater” label. June Jones can’t have an opinion against common accepted belief. His quarterbacks or Mike Leach’s quarterbacks can be labeled as system quarterbacks, but Coach Urban Meyer’s QBs cannot be labeled in the same manner.

Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks once again took a shot at the Florida signal caller. Franks claimed that Tebow would be the fourth best quarterback in the Big XII. He was labeled with the “agenda” label. Franks, like Jones, can’t have an opinion that is different from the fawning national media’s opinion. Nevermind, that Bradford and McCoy beat him in Heisman Trophy voting.

LSU defensive lineman Ricky Jean-Francois told the press, "If we get a good shot on [Tebow], we're going to try our best to take him out of the game." He was labeled with the “un-American” label. Tim Tebow taunts the Oklahoma Sooners last year gets a penalty and national acclaim for his passion and an excuse that he was a young kid in the moment while Jean-Francois is labeled as having the typical 21st century thug life, hip hop mentality.

Steve Spurier chose Jevan Snead as his 1st team quarterback instead of Tim Tebow. He received the “agenda, hater, unobjective, un-American, evil” label. A national uproar soon emerged because Tebow was not a unanimous choice for preseason SEC 1st teamer. It’s not like Snead is a scrub. He is maybe a top 5 NFL draft pick and posses unquestioned skills. His team did beat UF last year. Why was there not the same outrage in the Big 12 with the returning Heisman trophy winner?

Reason #5

Lastly, over the past four years, the conference that has produced more first-round draft picks (30) than any other conference is the ACC and not the SEC. Ok ok ok…the last reason may not be the most compelling reason, but I’m just sayn’



Sportynation, UF is unquestionably the favorite to win the national championship, but there are many many reasonable reasons why they won’t win it. It’s gonna be a long season. Only time will tell us what will, indeed, happen. I know what I’m rooting for.

This is my Minority Report.