The tale of two Tebows

To say that Tim Tebow has a flair for the dramatic would be an understatement. A big one. To say that Tim Tebow is a winner, well, you'll find many fewer naysayers right now than you would three days ago. To say that Tim Tebow is the most exciting player to watch in football right now might have been up for argument 3 months ago, but is at this point as much of a certainty as any other claim one can make about a league with so much up for grabs right now.

But what exactly is he? How can a figure so inconsistent in his play, a man who cannot seem to compete at any kind of steady, safe pace, but only at extremes, possibly be defined?

The tale of Tim Tebow is the epic journey of two quarterbacks, both inherently similar and entirely different.


The first depicts the man who was never supposed to make it in the National Football League. A bad decision-maker with some of the worst accuracy issues ever seen in a quarterback prospect. He scrambles too much, at inopportune times, afraid to test his arm for fear of making a mistake. A powerful runner, sure, but is he really the saving grace to the Kyle Orton-led offense's woes? No. This Tim Tebow is the quarterback who would be remembered in equal measure for his unparalleled success in college and his inability to translate his playing style to the next level, proof that a lack of the qualities that are usually associated with the elite QBs cannot be overcome by less traditional traits, such as unequaled body strength, great running ability, unrivaled passion and, perhaps most significantly, and most debatably, faith.

And then, his alter ego emerges. This Tim Tebow can do it all. He throws darts to his targets, and reads the pressure with perfection, knowing when it is right to sling the ball and when to use his legs. He is confident, efficient, deadly. To watch this new and improved version erases the painful memories he had established so prominently in your mind just minutes before; he compensates for the lackluster play of his former self, reversing the momentum of the game and taking control just as it seems as though defeat is assured.

So, if these two separate existences are so incredibly disparate in how they are played out on the gridiron, then where do their similarities lie? The answer to that is found in Tebow's character and faith. Through the good, the bad, and ugly (and there is lots of ugly), a constant aspect of the identity of Tim Tebow is his selflessness and his devotion to his team, family and God. He is widely questioned in the sports world for his his atypical playing style and skills, but is even more highly scrutinized in American society at large for his religious beliefs, and especially his highly-publicized expression of them on camera, either after celebrating a touchdown or in front of the microphone. Whether or not you agree with him on abortion and sex before marriage, it is refreshing, at least in my mind, for a sports figure to be polarizing in public perception of him for something other than legally and morally questionable decisions. Certainly, the gripes surrounding Tebow are trivial in comparison to the transgressions that have divided public opinion of other star athletes. Pete Rose's gambling and insider trading, Barry Bonds's and Alex Rodriguez's steroid use, Tiger Woods's extramarital affairs: these are just a few key examples of some of sports' most notable and popular figures who have split how society perceives them based on their personal transgressions. Depending on who you talk to, these men either had their careers tarnished by these behaviors, or managed to overcome their mistakes and salvage their livelihoods and social footing. Tebow has made no such mistakes. This time, the public is divided not by whether Tebow should be forgiven for his actions, but by whether or not they also believe in what he believes. Isn't this new form of athlete, one so loved by many and so disliked by others because of what he stands for, a symbol and hero for a legitimate cause, a great improvement over the other players, whose off-the-field actions and words so often bring about publicity for all the wrong reasons? Perhaps Tim Tebow will lose his starting job halfway through next season, and perhaps he will never win another game ever again. Maybe this season has just been a fluke. But if one thing is for sure, it is that this man will always stand for something, and will always be a face of that belief, and that is a rarity in today's sports world.

Ok, now back to football.

The end result of the two Tim Tebows, as shown time and time again this regular season, is nail-biting, hair-raising, ugly, beautiful, tragic, and inspiring. It is the classic cliché sports movie; a castoff quarterback defies his shortcomings to stick it to the haters and resurrect a bottom-feeder into a playoff team. The two coexist, both evident at separate parts of the game, with the latter Tebow showing up just enough at the end to eek out an impossible win at the end of regulation or in overtime. In such games, the stats will usually show single-digit completions, and laughably few passing yards, but all everyone talks about is that final drive, that clutch throw to put the Broncos in field goal range, that two-point conversion he ran in himself for the win with no time on the clock. They combine for some of the most perplexing and epic contests in recent memory. They do not win all the time. Just as in games, they win just enough to make it to the playoffs. Their quarterback didn't need to play well throughout the whole game to beat the New York Jets, San Diego Chargers, Chicago Bears and others, so he didn't. The Broncos didn't need to win the last three games of the season, so they didn't. Look, I know this isn't what Tebow intends. Of course he wants to win every game he plays. But this just seems to be the way things have turned out. That's just the way the regular season went for Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos. They made the playoffs by the slimmest of margins, by the skin of their teeth. And just as some say Tebow does in the 4th quarter, they had some help getting there.

But then, something changed. Or did it?

On Sunday, only half of Tim Tebow showed up. The better half. The best yet. Sure, he only completed 10 of 21 passes. But they went for 316 yards, an average of 31.6 per completion (too bad those three digits don't have any symbolic meaning, huh? That'd be really cool). He threw two touchdowns, and added 50 yards and another TD on the ground. But the stats do not in themselves do justice to the performance that Tebow put on in the Wild Card round against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was supremely confident, and at times absolutely brilliant in knowing what to do with the football, and with his ability to get it there. The thing is, he did all this against the number one defense in the land. Looking at it from that angle, Tebow did the unthinkable. To achieve it, he needed to play well, not just in the fourth quarter, but throughout. To beat the Steelers, the Broncos needed to build a lead early. No way could they climb back from two scores down in the waning minutes to tie it up. Their quarterback provided the points necessary to give them a chance. Then he hit Demaryius Thomas with a perfect throw in overtime, who took it to the house to cap off an absurd victory. This was a different man, in that it was just one man. Tebow wasn't perfect over the entire game. One throw on a cross route late in regulation could have gone for big yards, but was misfired. But he was steady. He didn't make big mistakes. He made big plays in the first half, as well as later on. Frankly, he looked more like an NFL quarterback.

But what does this all mean? Could it be that he simply needed to play at a higher level to beat the Steelers, so he did? The events leading up to this game would argue yes. Once again, Tebow did just enough to win; only this time, that just enough required a little (or a lot) more. It just appears to me as though Timmy is not capable of dominating games and really pulling away from opponents, but finds it within himself to scrape out enough points to move on. But when will he stop? When will the wells run dry? When will Tim Tebow's limits finally show themselves? Or is this all without evidence, just conjecture? The answer could come as soon as Saturday. No matter what happens, if Tebow gets blown out by Tom Brady and the Patriots, or somehow wins again and goes all the way to the Super Bowl and NFL lore, two things will be for sure: first, that he'll remain an upstanding guy throughout it all, and also that I'll always love him for the ride he took us on this year, however far he gets in the playoffs and beyond.