Interesting Timothy Tebow

I love watching interesting athletes. To be precise (a Tintin reference, incidentally), I love watching athletes who make things interesting. Vladimir Guerrero in his prime, when he swung - and hit - everything? I'm not changing the channel. Apolo Ohno surrounded by angry South Koreans on the short track? I'm on the edge of my seat.

Hakim Warrick was my favorite SU basketball player ever because he was the most interesting talent I've ever seen come through the dome. Gerry was a clutch shooter, but there are plenty of those in the NCAA. Melo was a dominant scorer destined for NBA stardom, but there is a dominant player every year or so. Hak's dunks were...unique. Amazing. Interesting.

I read everything Bill Simmons writes, and since Simmons writes a lot about the NBA, I've gotten back into pro basketball. There are relatively few players in the NBA compared to baseball or football, so it's easy to know a little about a majority of the guys on the court in any given game. And, guided by Simmons, its easy to find something interesting to watch in many random regular season games that I happen to catch, and certainly in the long postseason. The same thing is drawing my back to the Premiership, via the brilliantly hilarious podcast, the Men in Blazers. Roger Bennett and Michael Davies are guiding me towards interesting stuff to watch for in EPL matches. All of a sudden I'm TiVo'ing British soccer and loving it.

Tiger Woods in his prime. Michael Jordan in his prime. The two best bets in my lifetime to make things interesting, especially down the stretch. If I listed my top 10 greatest sports memories, those two would dominate my list.

I love watching Timothy Tebow play football right now because he is so freaking (to borrow his word) interesting.

Yes, I think it's cool he's a class act, a good guy, and a Christian. But whatever. That's just an added twist. No, I don't think he's single-handedly winning these games. The rest of the Broncos are playing great, especially their defense, but especially Matt Prater. John Fox is coaching well. Nor do I think God is manipulating the results because Timothy Tebow is a Christian. As Chuck Klosterman suggests in his brilliant take on Timothy, "I doubt many Christians believe that God is unfairly helping Tebow win games in the AFC West... However, I get the impression that especially antagonistic secularists assume this assumption infiltrates every aspect of Tebow's celebrity... Their negative belief is that penitent, conservative Americans look at Tebow and see a man being 'rewarded' for his faith." Not to go into too much theological thought right now, but the God of my understanding was fixing NFL games, he'd work it so the poor and meek won. Instead of some home-schooled, rich, white boy, the Buffalo Bills would be pulling off miraculous, come-from-behind victories.

I don't think, however, that Timothy's faith is what makes him so interesting. It is certainly central to a lot of the popular discussion about him, but it is not driving that discussion. What is driving interest is that Timothy Tebow is interesting when he steps on the football field. And that has a little to do with his religion, but it also has a little to do with how horrible his throwing mechanics are, how tough a runner he is, and, most of all, how he keeps winning these crazy game.

Eventually, the Broncos will lose. Probably this weekend, when they host the New England Patriots. The Broncos will probably make the playoffs, and they will probably lose their first game there. Timothy Tebow might not develop much as an NFL quarterback beyond what he is doing right now. The rest of the NFL will adjust - it always does. They will come up with a game plan for him. It is quite possible that Timothy Tebow will never be as highly regarded as he is at this exact moment. But I will be watching Broncos-Patriots this Sunday. It is going to be interesting.

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Wednesday night, the NFL Network replayed the Bears-Broncos game from Sunday, editing it down to its essentials, adding in NFL Films footage as well as in-game audio from a miked-up Timothy Tebow and post-game audio from the press conference. It was riveting. Here are my thoughts, recorded as I watched the replay:

• The Broncos moved the ball fairly well in the first quarter. It seemed like by the end of the first the Bears D-line started doing a better job of keeping the shape of the pocket. That prevented Timothy from rolling and extending the play. Having a guy like Urlacher spy on Timothy is important, but the key is keeping containment on the pocket.

• As Margaret Kramer (Lauren Bacall) says in the famous and much-loved 1996 comedy, My Fellow Americans, "Don't say freaking, [Timothy]. If you have to use the 'F' word, go for the gold!"

• If you block well, you can run steadily on the Broncos, but don't expect to break any big plays. The Bears' TD drive took forever. So you can run on Denver, but you can't run away.

• Hey! Marion Barber is religious too! He shouts "Hallelujah!" repeatedly as he struts around the sideline after the touchdown.

• Mike Tice is the Bear's offensive line coach! I bet he has some great Timothy Tebow stories. "One time...I was driving in my car...and I saw Tim Tebow drinking a frappucino in a Starbucks! I waved at him...and I think he saw me! It was awesome!"

• Actually, Caleb Hanie reminds me a lot of Timothy Tebow, only without the running ability and the drastically improved play in the fourth quarter. Basically, he's not very good at throwing a football.

• Big play at 11:41. Caleb Hanie misses a wide open Marion Barber on third down. I mean WIDE open. Fox's Daryl Johnston said if he completes that pass, Barber is STILL running, and I think that's as true now, on Wednesday night, as it was Sunday evening! Immediately after that turning point, NFL Network cuts to a clip of Timothy Tebow reassuring his teammates, "We'll be all right!"

• "I don't care how this game is going. This is your quarter! You're about to make this happen, dog! Remember I tol' you!" -Willis McGahee to Timothy Tebow. The pair are holding hands, as Timothy stares at McGahee with a dazed smile that seems to say, "Wow! I can't believe God blessed me with the opportunity to play pro football with black dudes from the streets! This is the best!"

• Around the 6 minute mark Timothy Tebow has a ridiculously awkward conversation with his arm draped around one of his wide receivers. "And you're about to be... the hero of the game!" Yeah! I think in that pause he was trying to come up with some street lingo, something like "You're about to be the shizzle, my nizzle!" but he thought better of it.

• OK. The Broncos just got the ball with 4:30 to go, and I STILL don't believe they can come back, even though I know they do.

• Bill Belichick isn't dumb enough to run a prevent defense against Timothy Tebow in the fourth this weekend, is he? Someone is going to figure this out...

• At 2:08 Demaryius Thomas catches a TD on a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL play by Timothy Tebow. Steps up in the pocket, slides to the right, feels the line of scrimmage and finds the wide open receiver late in the corner. As it turns out, they needed every second; Timothy had to score that TD on that play, getting it in before the two minute warning. No timeouts left for the Broncos.

• If you've watched these Denver games, you know Matt Prater has been brilliant, and as valuable as any Bronco. How good was his onsides kick that Denver didn't get? So close...

• Lovie Smith threw Barber under the bus in the press conference clip NFL Network played. "You gotta know the situation. You can't run out of bounds." Marion Barber deserves a lot of blame for running out of bounds, but not ALL the blame. Barber is a hard, scrappy runner. Why send him on any kind of run towards the boundary in that situation? He should be running straight up the middle. 

• I felt like Timothy could have gotten a few more yards on that last play before the Prater kick, but he didn't want to risk getting tackled in bounds. Smart play.

• Matthew. Prater.

• Timothy tells Von Miller he's proud of him, and to go do this thing. He does this all with an awkward earnestness, and a relaxed, almost inhuman niceness. Wow. He is SO Christian.

• "OOOOHHHHHH! OHHHHHHHH! I told you Tebow!" -Jeremiah Johnson after the Barber fumble, slamming Timothy on the shoulder pads. I can't see Timothy's face, but I think he's probably smirking, and thinking to himself, "I'm friends with charismatic black people! This is AWESOME!"

• I didn't notice this the first time through, but Matt Prater's "Red Line" in overtime is on the Bronco's 47. That's a 70 yard field goal. I mean...I believe it, but that's still hilarious.

• Ho-hum. Prater's game-winner ends up being only 51-yards. It's not perfectly kicked, either. It went slightly, slightly right of center.

• After the game, Timothy tried out "dog" as he shook hands with a few African-American Bears. They seemed to take it well, so maybe going forward Timothy will get a bit bolder in his vocal embrace of black culture. THAT should be interesting.