Tim Tebow is the greatest college football player we’ve ever seen. He is now comparable to Michael Jordan for us. Sure, Lebron or Kobe, or both, may surpass Sir Air statistically, but anyone who remembers watching Bulls’ games when #23 was on the roster will attest that there will never be a player as great as him.
Alabama was 12-0 entering the SEC title game vs. Tebow and the Florida Gators for many reasons. For example, The Crimson Tide’s got some pretty damn good footballers. Also, head coach Nick Saban and his staff are pretty damn good coaches. The execution on both sides of the ball was near flawless before the conference championship. But the main reason ‘Bama was undefeated, ranked #1, heading into the Georgia Dome on Dec. 6th, was that every single player on the team had IT. We don’t know what IT is, but Alabama had IT.
That attribute alone was the only thing making us believe The Tide had a shot. Because, honestly, the Gators were/are “better” at almost every position on both sides of the ball (of course, there are exceptions…hence the ‘almost’). But the pinball jolting and clinging around the deepest pit of our stomachs was the knowledge that Florida’s quarterback has a whole lot of IT as well.
The cream-gurgling for Tebow is nothing new, even among the stingiest Gator-haters. The 6’3, 240-lb titan from Nease High is a class act. Every SEC message board on the web, along with dozens of Seminole and other team sites, has been tenting at the crotch for three full seasons, waiting for this celestial man-creature to crash. “Surely he’s got a dead hooker rotting beneath those Sunday school books and clothes set aside for goodwill in his closet or something.”
But as he stated during his interview with ESPN’s College Gameday, he wanted to prove that he really is a good person. And he’s proven that he is a wonderful person.
But the fact that Tim Tebow is a great samaritan has little to do with the fact that he’s the best college football player we’ve seen live…and probably the best college football player we’ve ever seen. As stated above, the stats are decent-to-great, but that’s not what makes him incredible. It’s that feeling an opposing fan gets when he steps onto the field. It’s that unshakeable terror that he’s gonna do what it takes to win.
“It’s time for a turnover!” the salty crimson-clad fanatic in front of us at the SECC game screamed when the Gators lined up for the drive that would eventually lead to a game-sealing touchdown in the 4th quarter. Yes, we thought. Florida has not turned the ball over…yet. Waiting…waiting…never happened.
After UF’s single-point loss to Ole Miss in Week Five, when Tebow promised the Gator Nation it has never seen a player that would put forth more effort than he would for the remainder of the season, that dude wasn’t lying.
All in all, the blue-and-orange mobs within the Georgia Dome Sat. were electric. But in the 4th quarter, when their junior signal-caller turned to them and instructed them to step it up, they absolutely caught fire. At that moment, his fans and followers knew he was not going to let them down. The Crimson Tide faithful, a fan base that has recently learned how to cheer at football games with the best, knew it too. Most ‘Bama fans wouldn’t admit it at that point and did not relent in the least bit, but deep-down, they knew.
So tonight in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, if the game comes down to the wire, the Gators will win. Because Tim Tebow has IT. He believes, and he makes Florida believe.
A Drug Called Tradition 