A Grain of Saul: Tebow hate

Tim Tebow is quickly becoming the most popular, annoying, discussed and debated athlete in the… Tim Tebow is quickly becoming the most popular, annoying, discussed and debated athlete in the National Football League.

The Denver Broncos’ second-year quarterback is now on a four-game winning streak and 5-1 as a starter, but he’s drawing attention like he’s chasing his 12th Super Bowl ring.

As Tebow’s legacy begins to grow and his story unfolds, the country becomes more and more divided into Tebow haters and Tebow lovers. You can count me with the former.

First, we can take a look at the purely football side of it.

Tebow is winning games. Nobody can take that away from him. But before he came in, his team was 1-3 and their losses were to the Raiders, Titans and the unstoppable Green Bay Packers. So the correlation between him starting and the Broncos winning is definitely there — but correlation does not mean causation.

If the Broncos were still being led by Kyle Orton, who knows where they would be right now.

It’s no secret Tebow isn’t actually playing that well. His completion percentage has never been above 50 percent in a game and he’s never thrown for more than 170 yards.

Secondly, look who Tebow has beaten.

Nobody can take away the win he had against the Jets. That was a primetime, big-man performance. But look at the entire list: Miami Dolphins (3-8, winless at the time), Oakland Raiders (7-4, played them in Carson Palmer’s first start at quarterback), Kansas City Chiefs (4-7, without star running back and starting quarterback), New York Jets (6-5, a good win), and the San Diego Chargers (4-7, in the midst of a six-game losing streak).

When will Tebow really be tested? I know he’s had a few clutch scrambles, but they only happen because he can’t stay in the pocket and find a receiver downfield.

In the Broncos’ win against the Chargers, he passed the ball 18 times and ran 22 times. Sounds more like a glorified running back than a quarterback to me.

Not only that, but after these wins it’s not Tebow who should be on the cover of every newspaper and magazine — it’s his team’s defense.

In his five wins (four of them by a combined 17 points) the defense has let up an average of 15 points. If your offense can’t pull out wins with those numbers, there are some serious problems.

In these defensively dominated games, Tebow is just boring to watch. He’s rumbly, slow looking, the opposite of graceful, and he’s a lefty quarterback (yuck). Unlike Cam Newton’s or Michael Vick’s, Tebow’s athleticism never has that “wow” effect. He just looks like a fullback running around with his head cut off.

Even with all these things to hate, the worst part about Tebow is his cult-like fans. I mean, these guys and gals really think this kid’s career is tantamount to the second coming of Christ. Sometimes it’s tough to handle. Speaking of Christ, you can’t talk about Tebow without discussing his outward religious beliefs.

Let me clarify something: People don’t hate Tim Tebow because he loves God. It’s just that in a world full of hunger, global warfare, natural disasters, economic downturns, child molestation and disease, it’s tough to watch Tebow pray on the sidelines that Nick Novak will miss a 53-yard game-winning field goal to beat the Broncos.

Without getting into a theological debate about where God has his hand, I’m just trying to explain the reasons people are bothered by Tebow. It’s behavior after games like Sunday’s — when Tebow thanked God, instead of Von Miller’s huge tackle for a loss in overtime, for the Broncos’ victory.

But hey, if a quarterback this bad is 5-1 as a starter, who am I to doubt divine intervention?