His legend only grows now. He's a movement now. He's going to save the universe, or at least, the Denver metro area for the next few days.
Te-bow, Te-bow, Te-bow...
The last name just stands up and announces itself, doesn't it? Say it out loud: Teeee-bowww. The guy is irrepressible.
Don't try and deny him. He will not be stopped.
Tim Tebow is Football Bieber.
Sure, that's way over the top. And yes, it's weird to rhapsodize about the outcome of a football game between 1-4 and 0-5 teams. Sunday's Denver at Miami showdown was the kind of woebegone NFL contest Roger Goodell should have paid you $29.95 to watch. The nadir of the AFC West versus the backwash of the AFC East. The Broncos were bucking in circles. The Dolphins were floating upside down in the tank.
But this was not a meaningless joust. It was the first start of the season for Tebow, the bright-eyed, relentlessly-polite former Florida Gator who'd won a Heisman trophy and played on two national championship teams and is still extolled as a kind of mystical football creature—half athlete, half inspirational talisman.
A rookie Tebow started three games at the end of last year's 4-12 Broncos season, but that was the football equivalent of what the foodies love to call a "soft launch." Sunday in South Florida felt bigger. The team was Tebow's now. He'd earned the job a couple weeks ago in a narrow loss to San Diego, replacing starter Kyle Orton and rallying the Broncos late in a game that ended 29-24. When it was over, the Denver crowd stood on its feet and cheered his name in mass rapture, as if speaking directly to the Broncos front office.
Te-bow, Te-bow, Te-bow…
This was his time. Tebow was soon named Denver's starter. Pushed to the side were the not-so-old worries that his scrambling, barrel-chested game was ill-suited for the NFL; that his passing technique was unorthodox; that he was not The Package the Broncos hoped when it made him a first-round pick in 2010.
"I don't think Tim Tebow is a good NFL quarterback at this time," one critic said last winter. This wasn't a random potshot on sports radio.
It was Tebow's boss, Broncos executive and Super Bowl icon John Elway, telling it to Sports Illustrated's Peter King.
But now Tebow Fever was soaring. Miami complied by making Sunday's game a de facto Denver home date. Tebow had won high school and college championships in the Dolphins' stadium, and his 2009 national champion Florida Gators were honored before kickoff. Former Tebow Obi-Wan Urban Meyer was welcomed in the house. Tebow loyalists snapped their arms together, making Gator jaws. Dan Marino must have wanted to punch a wall.
Then the game began, and the fuzzy feelings subsided. How abysmal these two clubs were. On Denver's second play from scrimmage, Tebow dropped back, and with a Dolphin defender in his face, he sailed a ghastly pass that should have been returned for an interception and touchdown. On the next play, Tebow tried to run for a first down, but was tackled short.
Or-ton, Or-ton, Or-ton…
A new era? This was like watching a two stray cats fight over a chicken bone in an alley. Neither team could advance the ball much.
The punters deserved oxygen. Denver biffed a pair of field goals.
Tebow was inefficient and underwhelming; on the afternoon, he was sacked seven times. Neither club converted a third down until deep in the second half.
Somehow, the Dolphins built a 6-0 halftime lead and a 15-0 fourth-quarter advantage, and the awkward conversation began as to whether a Miami win was in conflict with the franchise's long-term future and its chance at a first-round selection of celebrated Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.
But with only a handful of minutes to play, Football Bieber came alive. Tebow began to display the full Tebow arsenal: rolling horizontally to locate receivers; ducking linemen at the last moment; ripping up the middle when he needed to grab yardage on his own. With 2:44 remaining he found a diving receiver Demaryius Thomas for a five-yard touchdown. A recovered onside kick gave Denver the ball back, and Tebow hurled his most crucial pass of the day: a 28-yarder down the middle that was somehow grabbed and hauled in by tight end Daniel Fells.
When the play was reviewed, and officials confirmed Fells' reception, the crowd inside Sun Life Stadium exploded with Mile High-style applause. It was officially Denver, Florida. Moments later, Tebow found Fells for a touchdown to make it 15-13. Then, in familiar Gator fashion, the quarterback charged up the middle for 2-point conversion and a 15-15 tie.
Of course Denver won in overtime. Of course it did. Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore fumbled, and Broncos kicker Matt Prater sealed the OT win with a 52-yard field goal and a 18-15 victory.
Miami fell to 0-6. The Broncos are 2-4 and…what, exactly?
This is not the kind of victory that should inspire an over-the-top reaction. To celebrate a win over the 2011 Dolphins is to open a '61 Chateau Latour for putting your jeans on in the morning. There will be proclamations but the reality is Tebow and the Broncos played about five good minutes on Sunday, and it was enough to come back against a dreary club that hasn't beaten anyone.
But that reaction feels a nudge too joyless. An ugly game nobody needed to watch got an ending everyone wanted to see, and it was because of one undeniable attraction:
Te-bow, Te-bow, Te-bow...
You have to admit: it's pretty fun to say.
Source :
http://online.wsj.com