The 8,235th Opinion You’ll Read on Tim Tebow

by rich on December 16, 2011

Rarely, if ever, have we seen a single athlete -- scratch that -- a single person captivate an entire country with such a polarizing effect as Tim Tebow.  There are two stances on Tebow, love and hate.  There doesn't seem to be an indifferent middle ground with him.  Why?  Probably because what he's doing in the NFL has never been seen before.  The Green Bay Packers, eyeing an undefeated season, are a back story to Tim Tebow.  How is that even possible? Set aside anything you know about football -- this isn't about skill or tangible ability.  It's not about passing efficiency, it's not about playbook knowledge, and it's not even about game planning.  As cliche as it sounds, it's about winning.  All this guy does is win.  And he does it so inexplicably that it drives people nuts.  How can you explain someone playing as atrocious as Tebow has at times and yet he still manages to win.  His defense has helped.  Kicker Matt Prater has cashed in some seriously large field goals at times too.  But most of it goes back to Tebow and his uncanny ability to make the improbable happen each and every week. The latest in Tebow swirl is the mic'd up piece that NFL Network did on him during last week's (once again) improbable win over the Bears.  Tebow comes off as downright flawless in the video -- saying prayers on the sidelines, killing opponents like Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher who are trying to rip his head off with compliments like "nice play man" and "good play, Brian", and inevitably winning yet again. Where's the bad part of this guy?  Doesn't he ever get mad?  Where's his weakness?  This is the root of Tebow hate -- he's too perfect. Why do we need a reason to hate the guy?  How many times do we see athletes show up in the news for kicking their wife's ass, selling drugs, or various other run-in's with the law?  While a lot of athletes are easy to view as role models because of what they do on the field, they hardly live up to the billing outside of sports.  And then there's Tebow.  He's obviously not the only normal law abiding citizen who also happens to play sports for a living.  But, right now, he's the most prominent.  And yet, a lot of people can't wait to find a reason to tear this guy down.  Screw that.  Embrace this.  Embrace the fact that our society finally has a guy who people can look at as a stand up citizen, a role model, and an all around good guy.  He's really really into his religion, he builds hospitals in third world countries, he gives motivational speeches at prisons, and he doesn't cuss.  Oh and he also happens to win, win, win, no matter what. I'm not going to claim that Tebow unquestionably has God working miracles for him every week, and I don't know how anyone can undoubtedly make that claim.  But he's certainly doing something right.  Look at last week against Chicago.  Marion Barber makes two unfathomable mistakes, Matt Prater hits two no-doubter field goals from the parking lot, and Denver wins.  Against the Chiefs, Tim Tebow didn't complete a pass in the first half, and they still won.  Against Minnesota, Christian Ponder throws one of the worst interceptions I've ever seen and it directly leads to a Denver win when all he had to do was run out the clock for overtime.  At some point, you have to wonder. I don't bet much on the NFL anymore, mostly because I suck at it.  But right now I know one thing; only an idiot bets against Tebow.  The guy has unbreakable confidence, and unwavering belief that he's going to win, and it's downright contagious.  Denver is doing the improbable every single week with a guy who has faced doubters and haters the entire way.  So instead of waiting for Tim Tebow to fail so we can all laugh and say "ha ha, I knew he wasn't good!", lets embrace it.  Stop getting so caught up in finding reasons to hate Tim Tebow and start enjoying what he's doing, because you'll probably never see anything like this again.

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Fantasy Football is Destroying NFL Fandom

by rich on September 19, 2011

This marks my thirteenth year partaking in the hair-pulling, tv-screaming, keyboard-smashing event that is fantasy sports.  Over the span of those thirteen years, I've developed a few rules for myself; some come out of superstition while others out of loyalties to certain players.  I always draft Adam Dunn, for one (even though he really burned me this year).  My biggest rule in fantasy sports is to never draft a player from either of my teams (those being the Chargers and Padres).  This started back in the early 2000's when I had a Ryan Klesko incident and was so split on him succeeding for my fandom versus my fantasy interest that I decided the conflict of interest wasn't worth it.  Now, as the years have gone on, it's been easier and easier for me to not draft Padres players (because they suck) while the Chargers continue to tempt me with fantasy first round talent.  These are two separate worlds, real life fandom and fantasy sports.  They shouldn't be crossed. The rise of fantasy football over the past few years has been astronomical to say the least.  The industry has gone from a back page feature of Yahoo Sports and ESPN to the most utilized feature on the respective sites.  The culture of the NFL fan has changed drastically, and fantasy sports is leading the charge.  More than 50 million people will dial up a creative team name and play fantasy football this year, an astounding number for a game predicated on being a complete and total football nerd.  As the game continues to grow, so do the interest and culture of those playing the game.  Money leagues, trophies, hours and hours of studying statistics; this isn't a run of the mill "bragging rights" game anymore.  People take fantasy football seriously, and thus people are beginning to take Sundays more seriously, but not always for the right reasons. Michael Vick.  Jamaal Charles.  You may recognize these two names because they're two of the most electric football players in the NFL.  Or, maybe you recognize them because they both went in the first round of your fantasy draft.  Either way, both players suffered severe injuries last night; Vick's a violent concussion and Charles' a season ending torn ACL.  These are big injuries.  These are career altering injuries.  Downplay a concussion all you want, but at the end of the day it's what ended Troy Aikman's career.  The reaction I got from NFL fans, whether it be on Twitter, Facebook, internet forums, and so forth was frustration.  People cared, people were mad.  But most people didn't care that Charles had suffered a catastrophic knee injury because it was going to be damaging to his career.  No, they cared because they had "wasted" their first round pick on a guy who wasn't going to play for the rest of the year and now, looking ahead, their fantasy season was over.  People didn't care that Mike Vick was spitting blood on the sidelines and had gotten knocked out.  People cared because Mike Vick is their fantasy quarterback and what are they going to do now that they have to start Sam Bradford.  This is what the NFL fan culture has become and it's pathetic.  Arguably the biggest target so far this season has been Texans running back Arian Foster who, while nursing a lingering hamstring injury, has had to carry the weight and expectations of just about every fantasy football player who had the first or second pick in their respective draft.  Foster took to Twitter, the proverbial loaded gun, and laid down this blast. He's right.  The fantasy football culture has become so absorbed in a "what have you done for me lately" mentality that it's forgotten why the game exists in the first place.  It's gone from "Jamaal Charles torn ACL what's the impact on his team" to "Jamaal Charles torn ACL what's the impact on my team."  Fantasy sports are a test of knowledge and a way to enjoy the game in a more broad sense.  Hell, I've cared about Steven Jackson for three straight years now primarily because he's been on my fantasy team.  Lets not lose sight of why we play the game.  The players don't care about your fantasy matchup.  Running backs aren't pissed that they were pulled from a goal line carry because Death Cab for Flutie could have really used that rushing touchdown today.  No.  They play the sport because it's their job and it's a game that they love.  We watch the sport because it's a game we love.  And unless we recognize this and learn to keep the worlds of fantasy football and real life fandom separate, fantasy football is going to turn the NFL into a game we watch because our fantasy matchup loves it.  

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ESPN’s QBR With An Instant Backfire In Week One

by rich on September 13, 2011

Maybe you've heard about the new statistic that ESPN has wheeled out for the NFL season called QBR.  It's ESPN's advanced answer to the QB rating statistic that we've used for years to judge quarterbacks on efficiency and success.  ESPN couldn't stand pat with that, no sir.  Not in an age of advanced metrics.  So naturally, to upstage everyone else, ESPN put together the brilliant minds of guys like Trent Dilfer and Herm Edwards along with some statistics interns to develop a formula with arbitrary values assigned to nearly immeasurable statistics to try and create an all-encompassing statistic to rate quarterbacks.  We're talking values for stuff like "being clutch" and "importance of drives".  Who are they to decide that?  And more importantly, how can you weight those against measurable stats like interceptions.  For example, according to QBR, interceptions that don't lead to points don't carry much weight because it didn't directly lead to the other team scoring.  But so much else goes on in a game that isn't accounted for because of turnovers, regardless of if points come from them, that weighting these situations is asinine and pointless.  But I digress. Tom Brady threw for 511 yards and four touchdowns last night and, if you watched the game, you know that he absolutely LIT up that Dolphins secondary.  Hell, I think the yardage and touchdowns speak for themselves.  Anyways, in terms of QBR, Brady came out third after week one.  Third behind Aaron Rodgers and...Ryan Fitzpatrick.  I love it.  ESPN's golden boy puts on a record performance on Monday Night Football, and the network can't even jock his night because, according to a statistic that they made up, he was the third best quarterback in week one. ESPN is going to keep shoving this stupid QBR statistic down our throat throughout the season.  They'll tell you it's the best way to measure a quarterback and all of that garbage when, in reality, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  And at least some of us can have the satisfaction of knowing that, in an age where ESPN has basically thrown their allegiances on the table to guys such as Tom Brady, it's their own creations that are holding them back from giving him the ball washing we all know they desire.

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College Football is Almost Here

by rich on August 29, 2011

The college football season officially starts this Thursday and, in honor of that, I figured I'd post a nice little montage video that ESPN put together a few years back.  Let's get this season underway. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEivUpbwnv0[/youtube]

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