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I'm a confessed, dye-in-the-scales Florida fan, and I will confess something: I'd really, really like to hate Tim Tebow. I would. As it stands, I hate most people like him anyway. He's clean, he's physically gifted, he appears to get along well with his family, children, old people, and anyone else who comes his way, and he spends his offseason doing mission work in impoverished areas of the Philippines. He also does all that other stuff I can't seem to do for three days straight, much less every day: bathing, working out, and sitting in a church once a week without fighting the urge to scream in the middle of a service or falling asleep.
He's Ned Flanders to my Homer, and like Homer, I really, really should despise him despite his status as my team's quarterback. Yet ... he's Teflon to my greasy miasma of hate. Every attempt I've made not to like him slides off like so much grease off a well-treated frying pan. He let LSU fans calling him on his private phone and leaving unspeakable messages slide off his back; he signs autographs happily, and despite living in an intense fishbowl of scrutiny seems to let things come as they may. It would be annoying if he weren't so impressive and consistently nice about everything, including his pick for the Heisman Trophy, where he's openly stumping for ... Colt McCoy?
Tebow, who could become the first player since Ohio State's Archie Griffin in 1975 to win consecutive Heismans, said Monday that Texas quarterback Colt McCoy is his top choice right now.See what a proper hater has to work with here? Nothing. What the interviewer doesn't mention here is that Tebow interrupted the interview, but only to help an old woman across the street and sign five autographs politely on the way back. Stupid Flanders!!!"Being smart and just looking at guys who are having a good year, he obviously is someone to look at and would probably be my top guy I'd vote for right now," Tebow said. "He's playing extremely well and doing a great job leading his team and handles it with a lot of class, too."
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
11 comments
Comments
It may be hard for a UF fan to hate Tebow, but the rest of us hate him very easily thanks.
by LadyVolsHater21 on Oct 22, 2008 9:24 AM EDT reply actions
Oh, it’s easy enough to hate Teblow.First of all, he’s a hypocrite. He’s not as clean as he purports himself to be. Let’s just say he’s a very normal guy in college, with very normal "guy" appetites, if my source is correct, and I have no reason to doubt them.Second of all, the way in which he allows his father to use him to fill the coffers of his BUSINESS is despicable.If he really is such a Christian, how is it that his father and UF makes sure that every time he reads murderers a bedtime story in jail, or he performs unnecessary and religiously-influenced surgeries, that ESPN’s cameras are there to record everything?Aren’t Christians called by their own Gospels to perform charity with a pure heart, charity for charity’s sake, not to call attention to their good works to improve their own lot in life?Isn’t there something in 1 Tim that says something along the lines of not letting ourselves become "puffed-up" in our charitable works?Football Jesus is not stupid.That he allows himself to be used in the manner he is doing is either calculated on his part, thereby negating the goodwill his charity work gathers to him, or his passiveness adds more fuel to the fire that this is a guy who’s not cut out to be the leader of a pro football team.It’s very easy not to like Football Jesus.
by HobnailedBoot on Oct 22, 2008 12:06 PM EDT reply actions
Oh, it’s easy to not like him, but, when you tell Joe Nonsportsfan or Jack Casualfan why you don’t like him … you come off looking like a world-class shmuck!
by rjohnston on Oct 22, 2008 1:53 PM EDT reply actions
I grew up not worrying about Florida.
Then, as an adult, I learned to HATE visor-throwing anti-Bryants.
But doggone it – this is from August:
http://blog.fatcharliesdiary.com/2008/08/26/less-than-fortyeight-hours-to-go.aspx
…I just can’t do it any more. He’s just too great a guy.
(N.B. – The fact is, Tim was doing all that stuff long before they put the cameras on him. Don’t blame Tim if folks want to film him being a great guy.)
(N.B. II – Christians aren’t perfect – just forgiven. St. Paul himself said that he did the evil that he should not do, and he did not do the good that he should do. But at least they are TRYING)
by thronedoggie on Oct 22, 2008 4:57 PM EDT reply actions
I’m a devout Christian, but I really really want to hate Jesus Christ… but I just can’t for some unexplainable reason…
by msgg139 on Oct 22, 2008 6:19 PM EDT reply actions
Everybody has a dark side… the harder it is to see, the jucier it usually is. I bet he summers in Thailand.
by L'etat, c'est moi on Oct 22, 2008 7:50 PM EDT reply actions
He molested a bunch of filipino boys.
by Dr Huxtable on Oct 24, 2008 11:17 AM EDT reply actions
Dr. Huxtable,
I think your a sick puppy. Anyone who would say something like you said, I believe has a serious problem. I think your the Dr. Molester. What kind of brain do you have in that pea head of yours. I believe the lights aren’t on upstairs for you. Go GATORS AND GO TO HELL YOU SICKO. I’d like to throw you in a pit of hungry alligators. Your a sick punk.
by DeGator on Oct 25, 2008 10:29 AM EDT reply actions
Let’s face it. When someone is clean others want to believe their dirty even they aren’t. I like Tim Tebow and I like he stands for. Rumors aside, and an unnamed source in an unnamed commentors post qualifies as nothing more than a rumor, the truth is that he was doing all of this before the cameras were on.
by cadawg on Oct 25, 2008 10:49 AM EDT reply actions
I don’t hate Tim Tebow. (I try not to HATE anyone. It’s not good for you.) I just think it’s sad the way Florida fans hold him up as if he’s Tebow of Nazareth. It’s just weird to see an entire fan base idolize someone to the degree that the Gators idolize Tebow.
by NikkiFree on Oct 26, 2008 8:27 AM EDT reply actions
If Tim Tebow, a red-blooded 20-year-old male college student, enjoys the attention of the lovely UF females on campus, then good for him. Last time I checked, he was not married. I think the media makes more of his "holy-roller" persona than necessary. It’s a hook for them, a story for those pre-game filler shows like "College GameDay." He seems like a regular, good kid. He doesn’t seem exceedingly "holier than thou" or hypocritical or phony. I think there are others in college sports who are far more hypocritical than Tebow. I think the scrutiny of Tebow is excessive. I’m glad I was not a big-time college athlete, because when I was in school, I did plenty of naughty things – with gusto and often! Who cares?
by atlgirlfan on Oct 26, 2008 8:26 PM EDT reply actions
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