Tim Tebow: Redefining the Dream

Like many young boys who grew watching professional sports, I dreamed of being a professional athlete. It seemed like the ultimate profession: not only could I play a game all day, I could get paid for it, and paid a lot for that matter, and if that wasn’t enough, I would be a celebrity, and I would be famous, and women would be screaming for my attention, and I would use my celebrity to help save the whales. My dream had it all: fun, fame, fortune, and females. What more could you possibly want?

Well, someone ought to tell Tim Tebow about what being a celebrity athlete is really all about. Apparently, he has made it to the top of the college football world without tapping into its bag of goodies that comes with sports superstardom. Here he is, in his fourth year of playing quarterback for the Florida Gators, two National Championships and a Heisman Trophy later, and he doesn’t seem to get it. Doesn’t he know he could be making millions in the NFL by now? In fact, he could have left the college ranks after his sophomore year and still would have gone down in history as one of the best college players of all time. Instead, he now is recovering from a concussion he sustained September 27 against the University of Kentucky.

Of course, everyone expects Tebow to bounce back from the injury with no ill effects, because up until this point, anyone who has ever been impressed by his success has ceased being surprised. Heck, even his birth was miraculous: according to his parents, “Timmy” should have died no less than four times before he was born because of a deadly illness his mother contracted on a missionary trip to the Philippines. Yes, his parents are missionaries. And yes, perhaps the greatest college quarterback ever is also a well-seasoned missionary himself, taking time every off-season to travel abroad to spread the Good News. And perform circumcisions. I’m not making this up.

Clearly, nothing holds Tim Tebow back. And yet, he has become an icon of restraint in the last year, beginning with his decision to return for his senior year of football, risking, or at least delaying, a pro career promising all of the spoils that every young boy dreams about at night. And yet perhaps his greatest feat of restraint is in a different arena: sex.

Back in July, as Tebow fielded questions at a preseason press conference, a reporter asked him if he, you know, was saving himself for marriage. His response was a lighthearted chuckle and a genuine smile, accompanied by nervous, yet slightly amused laughter from the other reporters in the room. The answer, of course, was “yes I am”, and the whole sports world stopped turning for a moment. Not necessarily because it was surprised, as the guy wrote “John 3:16” on his eye black during the national championship game in January. But the fact that the information was undeniably public now was enough to give pause to sports fans everywhere as they tried to make sense of such a thing.

Think about it: the guy is undeniably good looking, funny, charming, articulate, built like a horse, plays the hardest position in sports better than maybe anyone ever at the college level, is set to make millions the moment he takes his talent to the NFL, not to mention he is doing all of this at the University of Florida, which does not lack for eligible mega-babes, and he’s saving himself for marriage? It honestly is mind-blowing, most especially for a world who would be asking not one question, but two in response: Why?! How?!

The unbelievable nature of the story is only multiplied when you consider the modern culture in college football. It has become a relatively common occurrence for recruits who are visiting a campus to be treated to certain “local ladies” as a sort of foretaste of what life would be like as a member of the team. Sex is a foregone conclusion on college campuses today, and most especially for football players, who are the most eligible bachelors on campus, and many times are particularly sought out by groupies hoping to get close to a star. And so many times players are all too happy to oblige.

Not Timmy. He claims that football is fourth on his list, behind faith, family, and school, in that order (notice: premarital sex is not a priority). And when he says things like that, you almost expect him to say, “ha ha, just kidding,” not because he doesn’t sound sincere, but because he does. He doesn’t sound like a preacher, or an extremist, or even slightly annoyed when faced with cynicism. In fact, he seems to relish the opportunity just to share his faith:

“You know, there's a lot of leaders out there. But, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of good ones. So that's always been my dream and my goal...to be someone that a parent can say, 'Hey, this kid did it the right way.' That's always been my dream and my goal more so than winning a trophy or winning a championship.”

Sounds like he’s just living his dream.

FAVRE > T-JACK

One thing is certain: the quarterback has been the key to the Vikings’ demise over the last ten years. In that time, the Vikings and their fans have been tormented by Daunte Culpepper and his itty-bitty, fumble-happy hands; Jeff George and his phantom sacks; a bunch of other slow, old, white guys; and of course Tarvaris Jackson and his fluttering “five hundred, dead or alive” heaves that even the red-headed neighbor kid knows he can intercept.

And that is precisely why the Vikings need Brett Favre to lead the troops this season. Not because he’s the perfect quarterback, for he might throw as many interceptions as T-Jack would (admittedly scary), but because, for the first time in a long time, opposing defenses would be worried about the Vikings passing the ball.

Clearly, Favre is old and interception-prone. But he still scares people with his arm, and will punish defenses if they key on Adrian Peterson. Furthermore, #4 is still capable of leading the team to come-from-behind victories, especially important because we tend to give up big plays on defense.

It was espn.com’s Bill Simmons who, last winter, was hoping that the Vikings would make the playoffs because he was so excited to bet against them, particularly because Jackson was quarterback (and we all know how that turned out). A Tarvaris Jackson-led (or Sage Rosenfels-led) team doesn’t scare anybody but Vikings fans, while Favre gives us a glimmer of hope.

Plus, we get to stick it to Wisconsin.

A letter to my readers

AMDG
July 13 2009

A letter to my readers

Yes, it’s been many years since I last picked up the proverbial pen (I say proverbial because I’m not sure anyone uses them anymore) to write for JamTime. What is the inspiration, you ask, to continue what for some seemed like a figment of a child’s boredom? His name is Bill Simmons. Also known as “The Sports Guy” in ESPN the Magazine and on espn.com, his writing has essentially inspired me to return to my own.

At first glance, we couldn’t be any more different. Bill’s writing is filled with movie references, (anybody who knows me knows that I have very limited range when it comes to movie watching), strip club jokes, and odes to his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox. And initially I was turned off to his writing for its occasional “mature themes” as much as I was for his allegiance to a team that nobody is allowed to root for. But what I did see through it all is a rare transcendence in his writing that I had not seen in other writers. Not necessarily an other-worldly transcendence, but a transcendence nonetheless. A sort of scope of sports that saw beyond the athletic world, and not in a superficial “here’s how sports affects real life” sense that can’t see beyond the self-centeredness of the sports world, but more of a “let’s be honest, sports are not that important, but at the same time, they’re fascinating, and that’s ok.

Here’s an example: Bill, as a Red Sox fan, endured (and saw the end of) the infamous “Curse” which supposedly kept Boston devoid of a World Series Title for close to a century. One of the observations that he made in reference to a city which has endured losing for so long is this: Eventually, if a team loses so much, and in dramatic fashion to boot, they come to expect failure; no longer are they even surprised if their team ruins it. To me, this is a great observation, and it really rings true in many arenas. To give a local example of this phenomenon, look no further than the current state of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Every time the team has a losing season (and there have been many), the team and its fans practically expect to be screwed in the lottery, because that’s the only thing they are used to.

Take the 1992 draft, when the Wolves had just come off a season when they had the worst record in the NBA. An undeniable talent by the name of Shaquille O’Neal was set to be the #1 draft choice. Minnesota ends up choosing third and takes Christian Laettner. By the time the 2009 draft lottery came around, nobody in Minnesota was surprised when we fell to the 6th slot, seemingly much too low to be able to take Ricky Rubio or even Hasheem Thabeet, the two players in the draft who most clearly would help the team. Then, in a bit of draft-day luck, combined with a trade for the 5th pick, the team was able to select Rubio, only to have him waver at playing for the team because of contractual issues with his Spanish pro team. And nobody in Minnesota is surprised.

Why is Simmons’ insight so noteworthy? Not because he has able to shed light on a sports story, but because his insight is so easily applicable to the rest of society and instances in real life. And his references to pop culture, and even human nature, have got me thinking that there might just be something to this professional sports thing that simply a diversion from real life: sports may be able to offer a metaphor for the rest of our lives if only we can see beyond the face value. No, sports is not the only thing nor the most important thing, and we can probably all agree that it takes too high a priority for too many people. However, it also seems that it’s here to stay, and that is enough to try to take something away from it, especially if you’re already committed to watching the Twins every summer night or the Vikings every Sunday morning.

That’s why I want to write again. I’m still watching sports, and more and more people are doing the same. Instead of trying to break a habit that is bound to stick anyway (and you don’t really want to kick, anyway) why not enjoy them like you want to, while also gaining something else, perhaps something more valuable: an opportunity to think more deeply about our everyday lives.

It’s good to be back.
Isaac Huss