A recent "scientifically-conducted" national poll of people who actually answer phone polls (ie, no one we've ever met in our lives) found that 43 percent believed that God had a direct hand in the success of ultra-religious young quarterback/meme generator/metaphor Tim Tebow. It's certainly no secret that whether they love or hate him, 100 percent of sports writers, think piece columnists and late night comedians will talk about Tebow if given the chance. With a heated playoff match tonight between Tebow's Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, the internet is boiling over with Tebow pieces. And we can definitively say that everyone loves Tebow—except for everyone who hates Tebow.
Keep in mind we're getting to a point where 43 percent of Americans will believe in almost anything—according to a Time poll, 43 percent of Americans still don't trust Muslims! But putting aside the fact that this was a one day phone survey of 1,076 people who had the time and patience to sit through one of those profoundly irritating automated calls that always comes exactly when you've just sat down for dinner, this is an incredible statistic that underlines an important point: there are people out there who really truly believe God cares about football games.
Chuck Klosterman confronted this phenomenon in his excellent piece on Tebow in early December, in which he risked his own sanity by trying to understand both sides of the polarizing debate. Ultimately, he concluded that the compelling aspects to Tebow's story were directly tied in to his unabashed embrace of faith:
The crux here, the issue driving this whole "Tebow Thing," is the matter of faith. It's the ongoing choice between embracing a warm feeling that makes no sense or a cold pragmatism that's probably true. And with Tebow, that illogical warm feeling keeps working out. It pays off. The upside to secular thinking is that — in theory — your skepticism will prove correct. Your rightness might be emotionally unsatisfying, but it confirms a stable understanding of the universe. Sports fans who love statistics fall into this camp. People who reject cognitive dissonance build this camp and find the firewood. But Tebow wrecks all that, because he makes blind faith a viable option. His faith in God, his followers' faith in him — it all defies modernity. This is why people care so much. He is making people wonder if they should try to believe things they don't actually believe.
When ESPN’s “SportsCenter” dedicated an hourlong program to Tebow on Thursday, football fans were incensed (or delighted). It finally made clear what had been implicit in all the NFL coverage of the past few months: the current season of football is now just a strand in the ongoing saga of the cultural phenomenon that is Tebow. Lovers, such as NY Times' Dan Barry, argue that this is a great development: "The Broncos’ season may very well end in Foxborough on Saturday night, at the hands of an ideal quarterback who throws rockets from the pocket. But at least Tim Tebow has made more than a few people think about life beyond the gridiron."
ESPN's Rick Reilly went one further with his praise: "So that's it. I've given up giving up on him. I'm a 100 percent believer. Not in his arm. Not in his skills. I believe in his heart, his there-will-definitely-be-a-pony-under-the-tree optimism, the way his love pours into people, right up to their eyeballs, until they believe they can master the hopeless comeback, too."
And haters seem just as enthused to be talking about him as well. SB Nation's Andrew Sharp wrote an thorough piece detailing why it's okay to root against America's new icon, breaking it down into a few pieces: he's the Tuesdays with Morrie of sports, his underdog story is a lie, he's a terrible quarterback, he grandstands about religion, and he inspired Herm Edwards to talk about "integrity."
Playing against Ugg Boots Spokesman Tom Brady, rollerskating pirate Bill Belichick and his band of merry Pats, there's a very good chance Tebow's football season will be over tonight—just don't expect that to be the last you have to hear about Tebow anytime soon. Because whether it's an SNL skit, a presidential comparison, or Jews for Tebow, he's the cultural icon we deserve, not the one we need want right now—whether Charles Barkley likes it or not.
