Video: The Sports Cult

Tim Tebow Sates the Lions... for Now

The presser was full of grace. The incoming backup quarterback smiled as usual and said the 'right' things. Tim Tebow has signed with the New York Jets.

Starting QB Mark Sanchez says, I'm not worried. No one believes Mark.

Why do so many assume that Tebow is going to get eaten alive by the NYC media and fan pressure? It's understandable, but not likely. Tebow has, in a sense, thrown himself to the lions. Since he purposely came to New York, when Jacksonville was interested, means one thing: Tim ain't skurred.

Maybe Tebow doesn't care for the 'safe' option.

He puts the lie to that aw-shucks image. There is a perception that Tim, and by proxy any athlete who pays more than lip service to Christianity, are basically soft. Too soft to keep a steady head in the heat of New York's kitchen. Too soft to succeed at the most elite levels of sport.

Christian athletes who are tough enough... A.C. Green and David Robinson spring to mind. So do George Foreman, Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, and Mariano Rivera--all top-notch sportsmen who publicly profess. It's an impressive list. And a short one.

Are You There, God? It's Me, Tim

Right now, almost no one involved with the NFL (including radio and TV analysts) believe in Tim Tebow. His chances of becoming a successful pro quarterback are so astronomical, Tebow's critics say, they are positively biblical.

They are not wrong, at least to date. Tebow was given a half-chance after the lockout to make his mark. But his preseason appearances were anemic. He's been described as a tight end who wandered under center.

Monday night's game against AFC West rival Oakland and we didn't see Tebow.Kyle Orton started for the Denver Broncos, and rightly so. Even QB Brady Quinn has an opportunity to step ahead of Tebow.

Tim Tebow's supporters are just as enthusiastic as his critics. Strangely enough, many of those who think the least of him have confessed guilt--as if they're insulting a nice guy. They are correct again.

His Super Bowl commercial pushed an emotional anti-abortion button, and he wrote a memoir before the age of twenty-five. Those things, added to his evangelical appeal, rubbed people the wrong way. Now that he appears short of the skills needed to quarterback a team, Tebow is fair game.

The only way to give Tebow a shot to succeed is to completely build the Denver franchise around his particular skills--think Michael Vick, Jr. Slower with a weaker arm. For now it seems that Tebow hasn't adjusted to the speed of NFL defenses. Only playing time solves that, if it can be solved at all.

Denver is not going to build off of him. It could work if the Broncos were brilliant personnel evaluators, only they clearly are not. Tebow as the cornerstone is too radical an idea in the conservative world of the National Football League. You copy the winners--that's how it works. And so far even scrambling QBs like Vick can't win it all.

Only a strike of fortune will reveal whether he can really perform.