Li'l Tebow

I don't know how many of you readers are fans of the TV series Parks and Recreation, but there is an episode from last season named "Harvest Festival" which reminds me of this whole Tim Tebow situation in Denver.

In the episode, the department is preparing for the Pawnee Harvest Festival when Leslie Knope unveils a surprise - the famous mini-horse Li'l Sebastian - who will have his own booth at the festival. Everyone, including Ron Swanson, is simply beside themselves to be in the presence of Li'l Sebastian. That is, everyone except Ben Wyatt, the state auditor from Indianapolis who is helping Pawnee with their budget problems.

At the end of the episode, he starts faking it while talking to Leslie by Li'l Sebastian's pen. He tells Leslie, "He really is amazing. . . he's fantastic. I totally get it now."

And then, a few feet away, he tells the camera, "I don't get it - at all. It's kind of a small horse. I mean, what am I missing? Am I crazy?"

Pawnee is the Denver metro area. Ben Wyatt is me. And Li'l Sebastian is Tim Tebow.

Tim Tebow won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship while quarterback at the University of Florida. Josh McDaniels spent a first-round draft choice on Tebow while he was coach of the Denver Broncos. The current controversy in Denver is whether Tebow will ever be a good pro quarterback.

Yet he is immensely popular. Fans LOVE them some Tebow. I think he had the highest selling jersey in the NFL last year - and was a rookie backup quarterback. If you go to any Broncos event, you will spot hundreds of no. 15 jerseys.

Yesterday, I took some of the kidlings to an annual Broncos event - the practice/scrimmage at the stadium. The first place we were sitting was about ten rows up from the field. After we first arrived, before any players were out on the field, a lady sitting behind us said, "I think when Tebow comes out, I'm going to faint."

We had to move to a shadier spot because the sun was unbelievably hot, but there were Tebow supporters everywhere. The first time Tebow came out to lead one of the drills as the quarterback, the crowd erupted with cheers. Remember, he's currently the backup quarterback. As a lifelong Broncos fan, I was quite embarrassed.

When starting QB Kyle Orton slid down at the end of a run near the end zone, he was loudly criticized by many fans sitting near us. Because Tebow would have not done that - surely he would have risked life and limb by diving into the end zone for a touchdown in an intrasquad scrimmage - which is even more meaningless than a preseason game. Again, so embarrassing to hear Orton booed for that.

I honestly don't get why Tebow has such nationwide appeal - which stretches all the way to Denver, which is a long way from Florida. Part of this might be my fault - I don't waste my time watching college football, so I didn't know much about him until he showed up in Denver.

It seems that people like him because he's passionate about the game, he's competitive, he has a good work ethic, he's good-looking, he's a nice guy, and he's a vocal Christian. So I guess for all these reasons, his fans want to see him succeed in the NFL. And his most passionate fans believe he will succeed in the NFL. Starting, like right now.

That's my theory, anyways. Like Ben Wyatt, I don't get it. At all. I mean, a lot of players have been really good in college. I understand that the Broncos have been somewhat downtrodden in recent years, but come on. He's the backup quarterback. Maybe he'll end up being good, and maybe he won't. I don't know. No one knows. I don't understand why he's the most popular player on the team and why people all across the country are so interested in him.

Am I crazy?