Tebowmania (Or How I Stopped Worrying and Just Went With It)

I am a lifelong Bronco fan. When you're born and raised in Denver, your first words are often "Go Broncos" instead of "Mama" or "Dada." The passion for the Broncos is not unlike the fervor in the South for college football. People tailgate for days, paint their faces and root for their team win or lose. We even had a guy dress up in a barrel for 30 years. Life as a Bronco fan was always fun. The Broncos had players that were great but were our little secret: Randy Gradishar, Floyd Little, Rich "Tombstone" Jackson, Tom Jackson, Dennis Smith, Steve Atwater, and Karl Mecklenburg just to name a few. There was some guy John Elway who ruled like a king for sixteen years over the region with one of the best careers in NFL history.

There were characters on the field like Lyle Alzado and characters in the stands. The South Stands in the old Mile High was where the most hardcore fans sat and woe upon you if you were there wearing a Raiders jersey. They had coaches like John Ralston, Lou Saban, and Red Miller. It was the first proving ground that Wade Phillips is a great coordinator but not a good head coach. There were two coaches that rose above all in Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan. Between the two of them they coached the Broncos for twenty-four years combined and got the Broncos to five Super Bowls with Shanahan winning two. In both their eras, the Broncos were good and often great; always being competitive. In the end, Shanahan became stuck in his own ways and wouldn't fire his defensive coordinator. Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, in turn, fired him.

And then there was the Great Disaster that would plague the Broncos for years to come. The villain that would indeed enable Broncomageddon was hired. And who is this villain? Doctor Doom? Lex Luthor? Who could drag this proud franchise to its knees?

The answer is a 33 year old Patriots offensive coordinator named Josh McDaniels. If someone was paid by another team to destroy the Broncos on purpose they wouldn't have done as good of a job as McDaniels did by accident. During the first year of his reign of terror he traded a Pro Bowl quarterback in Jay Cutler and had a horrific draft of which only three of those ten picks remain on the roster. The first two picks, Knowshon Moreno and Robert Ayers, have been disappointing and the rest were garbage. I'm still not sure of Richard Quinn's existence. I believe that a Richard Quinn is a mythical creature, much like an unicorn or leprechaun.

The team went out to a 6-0 start and people began to believe... then they fell on their faces and finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs. Not content for just mediocrity, McDaniels strove for true ineptitude. He traded more established players away like Tony Scheffler, Peyton Hillis and the mercurial Brandon Marshall. He acquired a young quarterback in Brady Quinn and then quickly threw him to the side and drafted a younger quarterback. While his second draft was much more successful (with six of those picks sticking around), it was much more controversial when they spent a first round pick on former Heisman winner Tim Tebow.

Tebow is a lightning rod to say the least. He seems like a nice, genuine guy. There are some inaccuracies that he has helped foster about his high school and college careers. I'm pretty sure that "they" said that he could be a high school quarterback and I'm sure "they" also said that he could win the Heisman and win a national championship. To many people he is the antithesis of today's rich, spoiled athlete. To his fans he is the opposite of Pacman Jones, Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger, a squeaky clean baby-faced champion that says his prayers and takes his vitamins. Never mind that the vast majority of NFL players are good guys and not thugs (I'd like to see him in a pray off with Brian Dawkins for example), he is the answer to all their prayers. I don't have problems with religious athletes and I don't really have a problem with Tebow. It's his wide eyed Moonie like fans that irritate the shit out of me. My other problem is that I'm a Bronco fan in Jacksonville, Florida which only makes it worse.

Tebow's throwing motion is ugly. Like bowling shoe ugly. His passes often sail over his intended targets by yards, not feet. Sometimes his passes looks like a UFO twirling around rather than a tight spiral and then goes to no one in particular. He looked so bad in the preseason that there were talks about him being the fourth string quarterback. Kyle Orton was the clear starter, then stunk up the joint and then was benched for Tebow and sure enough, except for one game in which he was abused by the Lions, he's won.

So what now? I don't believe that some one can just be a winner. I believe that skill and talent win out or an exceptional supporting cast helps you reach your goals. Tebow still has time to grow, but in the future he will not only face fearsome defensive players, but the greatest defensive minds in the country. Men like Bill Belichick and Lovie Smith are the equivalent of Nobel laureates in the way they know football defenses. He will be challenged and he may not succeed.

But for now, and especially after the Josh McDaniels error, I'm just going to enjoy the ride and go with it. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong.