Just Writing About Tim Tebow And The New England Patriots…

There’s nothing mystical or magical about how Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos have been winning games in their current popular and controversial streak, and — if you needed proof — the New England Patriots provided it for you yesterday.

Yes, we’ve all been watching football for years and we’ve rarely seen anything like a streak of four 4th quarter comeback victories, especially when a team and their star player have played so poorly through the first three quarters, but it doesn’t require a belief in God to explain it. Really, all you have to do is look at how every game in your typical week played out, because there are usually plenty of 4th quarter comebacks to cite.

Eli Manning has rallied the New York Giants from behind at least five times this year and no one is giving God credit for it. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have tons of them in their careers. And, strictly speaking, all the over-hyped stat really means is that your team didn’t play well enough to have the lead in the fourth quarter and the other team didn’t play well enough to keep it. Also, I don’t think Aaron Rodgers has any 4th quarter comebacks this season and his Packers are 13-1. I’m sure any quarterback would rather be in his position than Tebow’s.

I will admit that Tebow’s faith in God and his team’s faith in him had a lot to do with their success — it simple human psychology when applied to team sports — but as has been said countless times over the last few weeks: the other players have stepped up, too. Tebow may deserve the credit as a leader (though I think the head coach John Fox really deserves most of it), but football is the ultimate team sport and when a whole team is on the same page, they are virtually unstoppable. That’s really all we’ve been seeing the last several weeks, and the Denver Broncos proved it yesterday by constantly blowing defensive coverages and turning the ball over three times. Tebow or no Tebow, no team can play that bad and win, and certainly not against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Also, for the record, for those on the Tebow bandwagon, you can’t praise him as some kind of supernatural, miracle-performing savior when the team wins and then humanize him when they lose. You can’t only decide to be reasonable after reality slaps you in the face, you also have to acknowledge your past errors and correct them. Just as the whole team lost anti-climactically yesterday, so also the whole team, not merely Tebow, has been winning dramatically for the last several weeks. It should be a wake-up call to the irrational, not a bump in the road, because reason doesn’t work that way. Reason demands consistency. Just look at the Patriots…

The Patriots didn’t do anything special to beat the Broncos and Tim Tebow, they just played solid football like they always do. They didn’t get too high or too low with their emotions. They played a complete game the same way they’ve been playing for about ten years now. The media successfully sold the matchup as an epic battle between two formidable opponents, but really the Tebow mystique didn’t stand a chance against Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s cold and calculated, meticulously planned and executed game strategy.

And I know that many people will say it was the turnovers that made the difference in the game, but that was just the first half. The Patriots won the second half without forcing any turnovers. It was not good fortune for the Patriots. They didn’t get luckier and God didn’t like them more. It was simply one team dominating another.

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Now, I want to, but I can’t make this a religion versus philosophy, faith versus reason issue. Obviously, there are too many minds involved. But I can say that a reason-based approach to goal achievement clearly won out yesterday, as it always does.

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Michael Island