Even after today’s game in which Tim Tebow almost brought the Broncos back to defeat the San Diego Charger, you’d be mistaken if you thought that the entire city of Denver is pro-Tim Tebow. Many of the fans who pay to watch on Sunday in person seem to be Tebow fans, but until the last week they were the minority.
As a Denver resident, I listen on/off to local Denver Sports radio to hear what the general feelings are regarding the quarterback situation for the Broncos. I also talk to a lot of Broncos fans around town and have asked them throughout this year their opinion on Tebow. I also spend my football Sundays at a popular sports bar to watch the games, and can get the general feel of how they feel about the guy.
I’ve come to three conclusions:
1) The fans that love him ignore his faults, and generally blame everyone else when something he tries doesn’t succeed. They think he’s the next John Elway.
2) The fans that hate him give all the credit to the rest of the team when he succeeds, and blame him if he’s not perfect. They think he will never be a quarterback, and the team should have already cut him.
3) There are not a lot of people in between #1 and #2.
Before the season even started, it was amazing to hear (after the Tebow love at the end of last season) the Tebow-hate that spewed forth on the local talk radio. Certainly the station can control who it actually lets on the air, but it really seemed like the vast majority were anti-Tebow. That, and the local radio hosts (which do include Mark Schlereth, former Bronco and current NFL analyst for ESPN) were so much on the Orton bandwagon that you’d thought they were driving it.
Maybe they were? However, maybe that was also coming from Broncos management. Now that John Elway is running things for the team, is it really that inconceivable that he could influence the opinions of the local hosts in whatever way he wants? Possibly even telling them to dramatically lower the expectations people had of Tebow at the beginning of the year to buy some time and give Orton a shot?
Today, on my way to watch the Broncos game at the sports bar, Schlereth and crew on the radio were discussing the likelihood that Tebow would probably take over for Kyle Orton soon. Orton had been very ineffective all season, but it seemed like it took a 1-3 start to get it through their heads that the Broncos were going to be bad this season regardless.
Interesting how that was the first time I had heard them being reasonable and fair in regards to Tebow’s talent, and then later that very day Tebow started the second half.
It may not seem like it from the outside, but the very presence of Tebow on the playing field is polarizing in Denver. It’s too bad, because Tebow hasn’t done much to support the idea that he is the next John Elway or that he’s the worst quarterback ever. It does look like he will be given a chance to start now, and his play this season will honestly determine his future as a quarterback.
I say give the kid a shot.