{"id":3301,"date":"2012-03-13T04:00:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3301"},"modified":"2012-03-12T23:07:30","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T05:07:30","slug":"perception-reality-lies-in-the-tebowmanning-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3301","title":{"rendered":"Perception, Reality & Lies in the Tebow\/Manning Saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ever since the story broke <\/a>that Peyton Manning would visit with John Elway, John Fox and the Denver Broncos, speculation has run rampant regarding the future of Tim Tebow. Although Manning, arguably one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, continues on his multi-city “listening”<\/em> tour and has yet to make a decision as to which NFL team\u00a0will be\u00a0“blessed”<\/em> with his services, some in the Denver\u00a0media have already pronounced Tebowmania dead<\/a>, killed at the hands of\u00a0Peyton\u00a0Manning and John Elway.\u00a0Tim Tebow’s time maybe up in Denver, but it will not be Peyton Manning’s fault.<\/p>\n

Manning, after playing his entire career with the Indianapolis Colts, was inexplicably\u00a0let go\u00a0in advance of what is expected to be their drafting of\u00a0highly touted Andrew Luck, the Stanford quarterback\u00a0who has played in one of the most pitiful “bigtime”\u00a0<\/em>conferences and who wouldn’t know how to win a game played\u00a0against the worst that the Southeastern Conference has to offer. Good luck with that. With Tony Dungy\u00a0and Peyton\u00a0Manning both gone, there is no good reason to root for the Colts. And, with an owner like\u00a0Jim Irsay, there’s every reason in the world to root against the Colts. When the Patriots look good in comparison (owner Bob Kraft is a class act), I think I shall return to pulling for the\u00a0professional football franchises in my home state of Florida.<\/p>\n

Granted,\u00a0I was excited that Tim Tebow\u00a0was drafted by the Denver Broncos. As a long-time FSU Seminole fan, I married into a Gator family, but it wasn’t until Tim Tebow\u00a0was the starting quarterback for the University of Florida that I finally began to pull for the Gators even when they played my\u00a0Seminoles.\u00a0There is just something about the way that Tim Tebow\u00a0conducts himself\u00a0— both on and off the field — that inspires people to follow him. Well, at least some people. Apparently John Elway is not similarly inspired.<\/p>\n

In fact, the perception — which may or may not be the reality — is that John Elway has never liked “Timmy.” <\/em>From the clearly pained expressions on Elway’s\u00a0face, even when Tebow\u00a0was bringing the Broncos back in fourth quarter heroics, to the backhanded compliments, it would be a stretch to say that John Elway\u00a0was sold on Tebow. As was often the case with John Elway’s\u00a0comments regarding Tebow, “Damning with faint praise,”<\/em> comes to mind.<\/p>\n

With a quarterback that led the Broncos to win their division and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in stunning fashion in overtime in the first round of the playoffs, you would think that Elway\u00a0would connect with the competitive — if raw and unpolished — spirit of Tim Tebow. One thing that is not in question with Tim Tebow\u00a0is his will to compete and to get better. The other quality that Tim Tebow possesses is a Christian character that not only “talks the talk, but walks the walk.”<\/em> <\/a>For that he has been vilified, even as miscreants and “reformed”<\/em>\u00a0dog killers are given glory and honor in the NFL. As the saga in Denver drags into its second week, it is becoming more apparent that the reason — whether\u00a0perceived or real — that John Elway\u00a0does not connect with Tim Tebow\u00a0may have more to do with character — or lack thereof — than with competetive spirit.<\/p>\n

There’s no question that the National Football League is a business. But, just because something is a business does not mean that ethics, common courtesy, and simple decency should be absent. Perhaps all three of those ideals are abundant in spades behind the scenes even as the very public spectacle of the chase for Peyton Manning plays itself out in Denver. But, if that were the case, why the complete silence from Elway and company regarding their “starting”<\/em> quarterback? I can certainly understand Tim’s silence in the matter. It’s\u00a0been reported that\u00a0Tebow is “philisophical”<\/em> about the situation<\/a>, which maybe a nice way to say that he is not happy, but that he\u00a0knows that “all things work together for the good of those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.” <\/em>In the end, Tim Tebow\u00a0understands that football is not his life, but is just a game. As much as he wants to play in the NFL, God is in control of his life and God is in control of the situation at Dove Valley, whether Mr. Elway\u00a0realizes it or not. But, that’s a philosophy that John Elway may not comprehend and, therein lies the problem.<\/p>\n

When John Elway says things like<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Well, I think Tim’s earned the right to be the starting quarterback going into training camp next year,”<\/p>\n

I want to “help Tim in every way I can, to be able to improve through what I learned.”<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, I can teach him what I learned over my 16-year career, to be able to tell him what I learned in Year 10, hopefully get that to him in year 3 or 4.”<\/p>\n

“we’re so hopeful that Tim’s that guy. Obviously, we have some work to do and he knows that, too.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he must have different definitions for “earned the right,” “help,” “every way I can,” “teach him,”<\/em> and “hopeful.”<\/em>\u00a0If not, then there’s only one other possible explanation for why John Elway\u00a0said what he said in January. That explanation is not one that would be easy to overlook if you are Tim Tebow or any other Christian athlete who puts stock in the\u00a0phrase, “My\u00a0word is my bond.”<\/em>\u00a0Maybe with Elway and the Denver Broncos, we should remember\u00a0Ronald Reagan’s maxim, “Trust, but verify.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

If the words that John Elway\u00a0spoke in January are not consistent with truth or reality in March, then it will be difficult for Tim Tebow\u00a0— whether or not Peyton Manning signs with the Broncos — to continue to work for someone who appears to have verifiably broken trust, not once, but on multiple occasions, the last of which could be\u00a0paraphrased using the immortal words of Jackie Chiles<\/a>, “This is the most public yet of\u00a0Tim’s many humiliations.” <\/em><\/p>\n

If John Elway\u00a0and the Denver Broncos’ organization are this brazen in public, one can only imagine the humiliations\u00a0— direct and indirect — that Tim has had to endure in the last two years in private. No other\u00a0quarterback drafted in the first round has\u00a0been subjected to the\u00a0scrutiny of Tim Tebow. And, it seems that no other first round quarterback who has won two National Championships and the Heisman Trophy has been treated as shabbily by the\u00a0team that drafted him. Even Jamarcus\u00a0Russell fared better with the Oakland Raiders. A team should realize\u00a0they are\u00a0ethically challenged when the Raiders make\u00a0them look bad by comparison.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what happens with the Tim\u00a0Tebow\/Peyton Manning saga, Tim will be okay. In fact, he will be more than okay. After all,\u00a0when followers of Christ are treated contemptibly\u00a0by the\u00a0world,\u00a0Jesus says that they’re blessed. So, whether in Denver or Jacksonville, here’s to Tim hearing Jesus\u00a0say, “Blessed, Makarios, WooHoo!”\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>And, Jesus always keeps His promises. That’s more than I can ever say for John Elway!<\/p>\n

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Ever since the story broke that Peyton Manning would visit with John Elway, John Fox and the Denver Broncos, speculation has run rampant regarding the future of Tim Tebow. Although Manning, arguably one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, continues on his multi-city “listening” tour and has yet to make a decision…<\/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":[8,35,38],"tags":[89,1806,1810,1795,1802,304,1799,1104,1804,429,1809,518,1812,1800,1808,1796,1468,1233,722,734,1807,1797,1794,1801,1487,1313,1798,853,1314,1805,1315,1813,985,991,1811,1803,1022],"class_list":["post-3301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-religion","category-sports","tag-andrew-luck","tag-bob-kraft","tag-christian-character","tag-colts","tag-damning-with-faint-praise","tag-denver-broncos","tag-dove-valley","tag-florida-state-university","tag-fsu","tag-gators","tag-heisman-trophy","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jackie-chiles","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jamarcus-russell","tag-jim-irsay","tag-john-elway","tag-john-fox","tag-nfl","tag-oakland-raiders","tag-patriots","tag-perception","tag-peyton-manning","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-professional-football","tag-quarterback","tag-reality","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-sec","tag-seminoles","tag-southeastern-conference","tag-stanford","tag-tim-tebow","tag-tony-dungy","tag-trust-but-verify","tag-uf","tag-university-of-florida"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Rf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301","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=3301"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3316,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3301\/revisions\/3316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}