(08-17-2021, 10:58 AM)Bullseye Wrote:

(08-17-2021, 10:21 AM)MarleyJag Wrote: Speaking engagements don't make him a good person. But he CAN do speaking engagements and not be a bad person. I don't know him personally and I'd bet you don't either, so what's with the hate and bitterness?

Ever hear the phrase "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?"

That's the way it is for me.

I do not know Tebow personally.  Just about everything I have heard about him, if true, is admirable, if not great.

For his adherence to his faith and actually acting consistently with it is commendable, and he was a great college football player.

But for me, his popularity was always absurdly disproportionate to his college accomplishments and NFL potential.

People credit him with winning two college national championships as a QB.  That is patently false.  Chris Leak was the starting QB when the Gators won their first National title in the Meyer era.  Tebow was a short yardage back.  But even then, the Tebow cult was starting to fully bloom.  Tebow had a great college career on its own merits.  There was no need to exaggerate or artificially inflate it by crediting him with a title won when he wasn't the starting QB.

Then there was the insistence by Tebow fans that the Jaguars take him  There was the tantrum and exodus to Denver when we didn't.

They dressed in Broncos gear in our stadium because of him.

When Denver was done with him. fans put the banner across I-95 advocating we sign him.

Fans petitioned the president to force the Jaguars to sign him.

Fans wore sandwich boards urging the Jaguars to sign him.

Media talking heads, both local and national, did their best to shove him down our throats.

This dynamic didn't start with Tebow.

Chris Doering got the two minute standing ovation for a two yard catch in a preseason game.

There was the whole Danny Wuerffel obsession that even exasperated Mel Kiper.

There was the Gatorskins thing with Spurrier.

There are a sizeable number of fans from other college teams in the area like Georgia, Florida State and Alabama.  Absolutely NONE of those fans have gone anywhere close to the extremes cited above to push for their guys.  They have had perspective.  I've never had a fan from any of those schools tell me they would be willing to buy season tickets to watch a guy sit on the bench like I have heard from some UF fans. 

It's not an anti Gator thing.  I was fine with the drafting of Fred Taylor, Mike Pearson, Reggie Nelson, Bobby McCray and even the DE that flamed out for us.  I was open to 
Vernon Hargraves under the right circumstances back in 2016.  I liked Mike Peterson.

When I opposed the CJ Henderson selection, it had nothing to do with his talent or UF credentials.  It had everything to do with giving Minshew all the tools necessary to succeed to see if he was the long term answer to the QB position.  If not, then the next QB would be in a better position to succeed than his predecessor.

But even a decade after Tebow's career as a QB fizzled out and his numbers are well established, you still have people pushing bizarre conspiracy theories like NFL legend John Elway somehow being envious of Tebow.

If you are a Tebow fan and you want to know why there is so much antipathy toward him...THAT's why...at least from my perspective.

So if I read you right, you're saying the hate and bitterness directed his way aren't really targeted at him personally, they are targeted at the cult of Tebow with Tebow serving as proxy. I get that I guess. I agree the following the guy had/has never really made much sense. It was bizarre and at time ludicrous because it never matched what he was doing on the field.

For me though, it never translated to personal animus and it seems misdirected. Anyway, the cult should go the way of Tebow's career now and we won't have to deal with that particular distraction any longer.

---