Would Tim Tebow receive as much criticism if he was black? It’s a simple if controversial question to ask, but a much harder one to answer. For decades the NFL discriminated against black quarterbacks, especially those with raw passing skills but considerable athletic ability. Randall Cunningham and others eventually exposed that prejudice and brought about the current era, where a more positive environment exists in which athletic black quarterbacks are given time to develop passing technique commensurate with their scrambling ability.
Instead of being relegated to the second round or later, talented black players like Michael Vick and Vince Young were selected high in the first round and made cornerstones of their respective teams. In contrast, the Denver Broncos were derided for selecting Tim Tebow late in the first round, and he has been subject to arguably more media scrutiny and criticism than any second-year passer in the history of the NFL. To discern whether such treatment is a double standard or deserved, it’s worthwhile to look at performance.
Vince Young, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair, Kordell Stewart, and Randall Cunningham are six different “athletic” quarterbacks taken in the first or second round of the NFL draft to whom Tim Tebow might be compared. The following is a list of their statistics over the first six starts of their careers:
QB1 – 45.5 passer rating, 68 of 138 (49.3%) passing for 838 yards and 3 TDs with 10 INTs.
QB2 – 65.2 passer rating, 84 of 165 (50.9%) passing for 782 yards and 8 TDs with 6 INTs.
QB3 – 96.0 passer rating, 86 of 149 (57.7%) passing for 1279 yards and 7 TDs with 2 INTs.
QB4 – 78.8 passer rating, 71 of 124 (57.3%) passing for 903 yards and 7 TDs with 6 INTs.
QB5 – 77.7 passer rating, 81 of 168 (48.2%) passing for 1108 yards and 9 TDs with 4 INTs.
QB6 – 80.1 passer rating, 68 of 131 (51.9%) passing for 794 yards and 5 TDs with 1 INTs.
QB7 – 54.5 passer rating, 72 of 151 (47.7%) passing for 840 yards and 4 TDs with 7 INTs.
Aside from QB3, none of these “athletic” quarterbacks were exceptional passers to begin their careers. Each suffered from some degree of inaccuracy, with five of the seven hovering around 50% and about 6 yards per pass attempt. Those would not be good numbers for veterans, but the six besides Tebow all went on to become Pro Bowl quarterbacks, with five of them appearing multiple times. It might be fair to say that there is more pressure on passers to step in and succeed immediately in today’s NFL than ever before, but Tebow still appears held to a higher standard than the others on this list. Add in their respective rushing success and that becomes even more apparent.
QB1 – Randall Cunningham – 370 rushing yards and 0 touchdowns
QB2 – Donovan McNabb – 231 rushing yards and 0 touchdowns
QB3 – Steve McNair – 150 rushing yards and 1 touchdown
QB4 – Kordell Stewart – 206 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns
QB5 – Tim Tebow – 439 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns
QB6 – Michael Vick – 236 rushing yards and 1 touchdown
QB7 – Vince Young – 152 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns
So through their first six starts, as a passer Tim Tebow has been roughly equal to or better than everyone on the list except Steve McNair, while he has been superior to all six in rushing production. Note that this is absolutely not to say that Tebow will have an equal career to the other six players used in this comparison. A six game sample is far too small to make any kind of definitive statements positive or negative about a quarterback’s long-term potential. What this does is merely to demonstrate that the media assault on Tebow is unjustified and unwarranted based on the performance of some similar quarterbacks who came before him. Thus it is fair to question whether the relative unfamiliarity of a white “athletic” quarterback might be one of the causes of this discrepancy. On the other hand, it may have nothing to do with race, as suggested by a contrast against Steve Young:
Young – 55.8 passer rating, 78 of 153 (51.0%) passing for 974 yards and 3 TDs with 8 INTs.
Tebow – 77.7 passer rating, 81 of 168 (48.2%) passing for 1108 yards and 9 TDs with 4 INTs.
Obviously Young played in a different era of sports media back when he started his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but while he was prematurely labeled a “bust” during his tenure with such a bad team, he didn’t face the same level of scrutiny as Tebow. It’s possible that the particularly strong reaction to Tebow has something to do with his overt religiousness, or perhaps is simply a backlash against his tremendous popularity following a celebrated college career. Sometimes fans and members of the media simply tire of discussing the same player, and as a result start to become overly critical.
It could also be something I described in the rookie article for the 2010 edition of The Fantasy Football Guide, where I said of Tebow: “Simply put, he’s ugly. His throwing motion was long and jerky, his passes weren’t beautiful spirals, and his footwork was far from ideal. Yet those criticisms have more to do with aesthetics than actual performance.” Tim does look awkward on the field, which naturally prompts some level of negative reaction to his play even if the results themselves are satisfactory.
Whatever the cause, looking at the admittedly small sample of statistics should give pause to those who have already decided that he should not be a starter in the NFL. Such a judgment is ridiculously premature, as Tebow’s numbers are comparable to most of the “athletic” quarterbacks before him who went on to have sustained success at the NFL level. Time will tell if Tim Tebow ends up following them to Pro Bowl appearances or becomes another in a long line of college stars who failed to make the transition to professional football, but so far the results are actually more encouraging than discouraging. It might not look pretty, but he has helped the Broncos win games, although he will need to show continued improvement during the course of his career. In the meantime, those in the media who have already pronounced his fate should look back on some of the quarterbacks who came before him and rethink their presumptuous certitude.