{"id":2820,"date":"2011-11-16T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T07:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2011-11-19T23:38:06","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T06:38:06","slug":"tim-tebow-confounding-his-critics-one-game-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2820","title":{"rendered":"Tim Tebow: Confounding His Critics One Game at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moving the goalposts<\/strong> is an informal logical fallacy<\/a> in which previously agreed upon standards for deciding an argument are arbitrarily changed once they have been met. This is usually done by the “losing” side of an argument in a desperate bid to save face. If the goalposts are moved far enough, then the standards can eventually evolve[1]<\/a><\/sup> into something that cannot be met no matter what. Usually such a tactic is spotted quickly. (Moving the goalposts)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Logic does not seem to be the strong suit for many of today’s professional football analysts.\u00a0 That’s why so many former players and\u00a0coaches can’t help but move the goalposts in their continuing campaign to\u00a0malign Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback.\u00a0 Whether or not Tebow ever leads the Broncos or any other N.F.L. team to the playoffs or even a Super Bowl,\u00a0his many critics will\u00a0simply change the standards for judging whether or not\u00a0the former\u00a0two-time National Champion and Heisman Trophy winner is a\u00a0“successful” QB\u00a0at the professional level.<\/p>\n

From Boomer Esiason\u00a0and Dan Marino’s mocking of Tebow’s first NFL touchdown<\/a> last season to Merril Hoge’s proclamation <\/a>that\u00a0“it\u2019s embarrassing to think the Broncos could win with Tebow,\u201d \u00a0<\/em>it has become obvious that some analysts have\u00a0become unhinged\u00a0(genuinely or for entertainment purposes) when it comes to evaluating Tim Tebow\u00a0as a starting quarterback in the National Football League.\u00a0 Even though Tebow, in just three starts last season, put up impressive stats for a rookie<\/a>\u00a0(as compared to Sam Bradford for instance),\u00a0analysts were concerned about Tebow’s being able to win games.\u00a0 He was 1-2 as the starter for the Broncos last season.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to this\u00a0season.\u00a0 Without\u00a0much playing time at all before\u00a0he\u00a0replaced Kyle Orton as Denver’s starter, Tebow’s\u00a0detractors pointed out that he played horrible in practice.\u00a0 Since he actually played fairly well in the pre-season, particularly in the last game against the Arizona Cardinals, folks had to\u00a0move the goalposts when it came to evaluating Tebow’s performance.\u00a0 Hence,\u00a0“Tebow doesn’t play well in practice.”\u00a0<\/em> Last I checked,\u00a0whether or not someone had a good or bad practice did not translate into wins or losses on the football field.\u00a0 Just ask Kyle Orton, who was known for having fantastic practices, but managed to lead the\u00a0Broncos to a 1-4 start.\u00a0 Would you rather have a great practice player or a great game-time player?\u00a0 Ideally you want both, but if I had to choose, I would take the gamer any\u00a0day over the pretty practice player.<\/p>\n

After Tebow\u00a0was named the starter going into the bye week before the game with the Miami Dolphins in South Florida, the chatter among some analysts was that Tebow\u00a0could not duplicate the spark that he had shown in the second half of the Chargers game.\u00a0 When Tebow, after admittedly playing poorly for 55 minutes, did provide a spark and become the first Bronco quarterback to lead a team to an improbable\u00a0overtime\u00a0victory against the Dolphins in Miami,\u00a0many analysts did everything they could to downplay Tebow\u00a0and the Broncos’ win in Miami, where they had an 0-7 record going in.\u00a0 Not even the esteemed John Elway\u00a0was\u00a0able to pull off what Tebow and the 2011 Broncos did\u00a0against the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

With the thrashing\u00a0that Tebow and the Broncos took at the hands of the Detroit Lions, it\u00a0looked as if the goalposts would not have to be moved again.\u00a0 Funny thing, though.\u00a0 When you begin to\u00a0win, the critics become so confounded and confused that, in spite, they once again move the goalposts.\u00a0 After the Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders in the Black Hole by running\u00a0it down their throats, the excuses for why this win would not be repeated began to fly fast and furious.\u00a0 Oakland, it was said, was\u00a0not a good team (although they lead the\u00a0division and have a winning record).\u00a0 Oakland did not have time to prepare for the read-option offense that Denver ran (even though the players and coaches said they had prepared for it).\u00a0 This style of play\u00a0certainly could not be repeated.\u00a0 In fact, not a single\u00a0analyst on AFC Playbook thought that the Broncos had any chance of winning against the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

When the Broncos went\u00a0into Arrowhead and ran\u00a0it against the Chiefs (even after their top two running backs went out in the first quarter) and Tebow\u00a0only completed 2 out of 8 passes (one for a 56-yard touchdown),\u00a0you just know that the analysts’ heads are exploding.\u00a0 How could an N.F.L. team, in 2011, possible run it 55\u00a0times and only throw it for a measly\u00a08 times and still win the game?\u00a0 Inexplicable.\u00a0 How can the Broncos possibly be 3-1 with Tebow as their starter, only one\u00a0game out of first place in the AFC West?<\/p>\n

I’ll tell you how — Tim Tebow\u00a0is a winner.\u00a0 People like Merril Hoge\u00a0underestimate the value of someone who has been a winner at every level.\u00a0 They can’t explain how Tebow\u00a0and the Broncos have won back-to-back\u00a0road games against division opponents (the first time since 1977 and only the second time ever).\u00a0 They are\u00a0dumbfounded that a team can win running the ball (although Tebow\u00a0has thrown a TD pass in each of his seven starts), even though runs are just as good as passes when it comes to moving the chains and scoring.\u00a0 The Broncos not only think, but\u00a0they now know that they can win football games with Tim Tebow\u00a0at the helm.\u00a0 The only one who should be embarrassed about\u00a0that fact is Merril Hoge.\u00a0 However, I’m guessing that he and\u00a0others\u00a0will keep moving the\u00a0goalposts on Tebow\u00a0and the Broncos.\u00a0 Just as well.\u00a0 If the Broncos can somehow\u00a0pull off the upset over the Jets on\u00a0Thursday night, I can’t wait to watch how\u00a0Hoge\u00a0and non-Hall-of-Famer Cris Carter try to explain that one away.\u00a0 Whatever explanation they try to use, it will most certainly not contain very much logic!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moving the goalposts is an informal logical fallacy in which previously agreed upon standards for deciding an argument are arbitrarily changed once they have been met. This is usually done by the “losing” side of an argument in a desperate bid to save face. If the goalposts are moved far enough, then the standards can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38],"tags":[1476,304,391,3397,1461,1442,1310,1463,701,718,734,1462,985],"class_list":["post-2820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-cris-carter","tag-denver-broncos","tag-florida-gators","tag-football","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kyle-orton","tag-merril-hoge","tag-moving-the-goalposts","tag-national-football-league","tag-new-york-jets","tag-oakland-raiders","tag-san-diego-charges","tag-tim-tebow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Ju","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2820"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2835,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions\/2835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}