A Plea for Sanity on Tim Tebow

Unless you are marooned on a desert island, or refuse to join Twitter on moral grounds, you know that Tim Tebow will sign with the Philadelphia Eagles today. If you did not know, you soon will. ESPN will broadcast Tebow footage on continuous loop, airplanes will tow banners over urban areas, and horseback riders will crisscross the countryside shouting the news to the last few digital holdouts. Even the Unabomber could not avoid this news.

The news media refers to Tebow as "polarizing", which translates as "some people cannot stand that others admire him".  That probably telegraphs my point of view here. But I think Tebow fans and Tebow haters can all agree on one thing: the constant, intense scrutiny of all things Tebow has been by far the most infuriating thing about his career. Meanwhile NFL media insiders solemnly inform us that no team wants to deal with "the circus", by which they mean all reportage except for their own.

So here is a plea to everyone involved: turn the volume down. Place all electronic devices on mute. Let the man play football and succeed or fail on his own merits.

To the Media: no hour long on-air debates between @RealSkipBayless and @stephenasmith over whether Tim deserves another shot. No running counts of his completion percentage during OTA drills. No sifting through Eagles' trash dumpsters looking for negative comments from teammates (I'm talking to you, @MMehtaNYDN).  No helicopters or fleet of television vans at training camp, and under no circumstances should there be shirtless photos in the rain. Above all, when you ask about Tim in a press conference and Chip Kelly brushes off the question, do NOT ask twelve more times hoping he will give in. He answered you already.

To the Fans: no billboards. No Tebow chants on the 2nd day of mini-camp. No frenzied arguments about how Tim would lead the Eagles to the Superbowl if only Chip Kelly were smart enough to build a team around him.  No wild conspiracy theories about how he has been blackballed by the NFL because he is Christian. Tim is on a team and Michael Sam is not, in case you have not noticed. Accept that coaches want more than anything to win football games and make personnel decisions accordingly.

Most of all, ignore the haters.  A small contingent of Tebow superfans have become the Knights Templar of Tebow fandom, dedicated to crusade against anyone on the internet who speaks falsehoods about Tim. Stand down. Declare a unilateral ceasefire, stack arms, and close your statistics books. The books have been erased, and Tim will stand or fall on his performance going forward, not what he did 3 years ago with the Broncos.

Ah, to the Haters: I suppose this is probably futile, but I have to try. Let it go, man. I am not sure why you resent a man for relentless pursuit of his lifelong dream when everyone else has given up on him.  Tim's story may one day be a Rudyard Kipling poem or a great Philly sports movie starring @mark_wahlberg. Maybe @PetePrisco or @merrilhoge can explain why this enrages them so.  I am sure of this: bitterness is not a good look. So let go of the anger. Breathe in a paper sack. Do some yoga. Buy an ice cream cone. If Tim is so inconsequential, ignore him and he'll go away.

Speaking of internet crusaders, here is a pro tip. If articles about Tebow disgust you so much, then do not read them. That would seem to be an obvious solution, and way less time consuming than posting "why are we still writing about this guy?" in the comment section of every Tebow article you find.

We do not have to ignore him completely. Reasonable mentions in media analysis about the QB competition in Philly are acceptable. Fans may purchase Tebow jerseys, wear them to Hooters, and cheer when he plays well. Haters who root for the other 31 teams may rejoice in the possibility of their team playing against him and exposing him for the fraud you believe he is.  Unless you are a Steelers fan, of course.  You do not want to touch that hot stove again.

At this point in world history, anything worth saying has probably been said. Teddy Roosevelt pretty well summed up the Tim Tebow situation a century ago:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Let's all get out of the arena and let Tim Tebow strive.