Tonight's Broncos-Patriots playoff game should be great. It pits two fascinating quaterbacks-- Tom Brady and Tim Tebow-- against each other.
Brady is perhaps the best quaterback to ever play the game. I'm a tremendous fan of his. He has posted accomplishments-- wins, Superbowl victories, touchdown passes, completion percentages, rarity of interceptions-- that are almost hard to believe. He has an elegant passing style. I always root for him even when he's playing my hometown teams-- the Jets and Giants. My kids won't talk to me on game day. Rooting for the Patriots in a New York family is serious misconduct. I don't care. Brady is great.
Tim Tebow has one of Brady's skills-- he wins, consistently. His passing style may not be much, but he has incredible guts and leadership, and it's hard to root against him.
His quite public Christianity has been mocked, and he has been the target of astonishing vituperation. He responds with humility and humor (kind of like... let me think... hmmm... what blogger consistently shows similar modesty and meekness... ).
In Christ's body, Tebow's the throwing arm. I'm... the spleen, perhaps. Some would surely assign me a different body part.
But I love Tebow. It's probably gauche to root for a fellow Christian the way one roots for a football team. But I'll make an exception for Tebow. He's such an obviously decent guy, and I deeply admire his very public acknowledgement of Christ. I'll be rooting for him, despite my admiration for Brady.
God bless Tim Tebow. We need good men and real heroes.
What's so heroic about being a successful football player?
ReplyDeleteExactly..
ReplyDeleteSo, he thanks jesus when he wins, but who does blame when he loses?
@anon and Mjlder:
ReplyDeleteTebow honors God, as we all should, all the time. He's not praying for victory or for a touchdown pass.
He's giving thanks for God's grace, in all of its manifestations. Losing can be a greater grace than winning, as suffering can be a better teacher than comfort.
Your pitiful understanding of Christianity is the result of your own vincible ignorance of what Christians really believe.
Trying to make atheists understand Christianity is like trying to square the circle.
DeleteI suspect the reason for this is that atheists really believe they are evolved apes, but my wife keeps telling me to ask and pray God to do the trying and she assures me He will be a lot more successful.
Her reason is that nobody dies an atheist!
I think she's right.
Of course you love Tebow; Christian’s adoration of Tebow is down-right pavlovian. The power of Christ compels you - to shift your football allegiance. Tebow is the opposite of humble, riding his pious persona as a man in God’s good graces to an 11.5 million dollar contract. He comes across as arrogant as he genuflects signaling his fans that he gets his strength directly from the creator of the universe.
ReplyDeleteMid second quarter, 21-7 New England. Perhaps Jesus is waiting until the forth quarter again to intervene with yet another miracle for the QB that worships him most publicly.
-KW
Halftime and 35-7 NE. Brady and the Patriots are doing a great job of demolishing the Jesus myth and making Christians look like fools. Perhaps after tonight some Jesus/Tebow fans will realize there is no God.
ReplyDelete-KW
You're kidding, right?
DeleteI hope that is some sort of joke. Otherwise I would suggest an oral enema.
Not a fan of American football, but I did read about the mockery this Tebow guy faced for bowing after an important goal of some sort.
ReplyDeleteMy take?
I think it is childish.
They guy wants to cross himself, or pray, or dance about... his business, so long as it does not delay the game EVEN MORE (the whole reason I do not watch NFL).
Mocking Tebow for his piety - real or feigned - is tantamount to mocking his mockers for their ethnicity or relations.
Were the mockers censured or punished? Would they have been if the cultural/racial tables were turned?
These are the irksome questions to me.
Does this make Tebow a saint? No. I have no idea who the guy really is, but he sure doesn't look like he deserves the vitriol being pushed against him.
In fact, I would say the hatred directed against him is indicative of a lager cultural rot.
were interested I ALWAYS route against the 'Patriots'.
Go Broncos.
Crus,
ReplyDeleteMaking fun of someone doesn't amount to hatred or vitriol. As to parallels with ethnic identities, well, you jab me from time to time about being Russian, and I take no offense in it.
Tebow is a Christian zealot who makes public displays of his piety. He is free to do so. Others are free to poke fun at him. Free country.
Oh, Oleg!
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about the jokes and mockery themselves, I am talking about the hater bandwagon, and the insane double standard on these 'jabs'.
If Tebow's piety can be mocked, so can the 'hood' attitude displayed by some these VERY well off athletes. But that would 'an outrage' to the media.
I think Tebow can take a jab, but I think it is a silly standard the media (and just about everyone) holds regarding these things. Mockery is mockery. If Tebow can take it, so can you and I.... and all the other easily offended millionaires in sports.
Everybody needs to grow some thicker skin.
As for my comments on Russians, and yours to me: you are spot on - 'jabs' meant in the spirit of the convo. Nothing more. You cannot help being born Russian any more than I can help being born British . Both those nations have long and proud histories.... and really nasty BLACK spots.
My issue has never been with Russia or Russians - but with internationalism: Communism.
Truthfully the most offensive thing in professional sports, to me, is the OUTRAGEOUS salaries they are paid. But hey, that's CAPITALISM for ya. (don't get me going on that :P)
REX:
DeleteAgreed.
Nobody should reserve the right to be offended. Yet these people who get paid millions for doing something many play as a recreation on the weekends is offensive.
Tebow choked this weekend, to be sure. I commend him for his charity work, however.
I find Egnor's love for Tim Tebow to be remarkably ironic, since the Tebow ministry doesn't consider Catholics to be Christians. In other words, Tebow thinks all Catholics are headed straight to Hell.
ReplyDeleteIn Christ's body, Tebow's the throwing arm. I'm... the spleen, perhaps. Some would surely assign me a different body part.
ReplyDeleteIn Tebow's version of Christ's body, you're assigned no part. You're not a Christian in the eyes of the Tebow ministry.