I've been thinking about this for a few weeks. I don't think it's racism, though in the NFL there are a higher number of black commentators, analysts and pundits b/c of the propensity to get ex-players for those roles (I generally like that perspective a lot.), but it gives someone an easy excuse to play the race card that if Cris Carter and Deion and others are dumping on him and not Newton or Vick, it's b/c they're racist. No, they're ex-players critiquing current ones, and that's their right (and job). My initial thought was anti-outspoken-Evangelical-Christianity...
Exhibit 1: JaMarcus Russell was one of the worst quarterbacks EVER in the NFL. Drafted higher than he should've been, lots of pressure, etc....and while defenses used the same tactics as they are on Tebow (confusing him with blitz and coverage packages that he couldn't handle, hitting him when he tried to run, etc) I NEVER saw someone mock him on the field with fake praying, fake fingers-pointing-to-God, trash-talking him between games, etc. I didn't see that for Jimmy Clausen. I didn't see that for Akili Smith. I didn't see that for any number of over-hyped, unperforming quarterbacks, black or white. Hell, Ryan Freakin' Leaf didn't get the treatment Tebow's getting. So if it's not black or white, if it's not "sucks or not", if it's not "high first-rounder vs. others", then what could it be?
Exhibit 2: It's not just black players, or even black ex-players who are doing it. Golic and Merrill Hoge are two of the bigger "haters" there are about Tebow. Hoge (who's a good analyst, and does a lot of film breakdown) even lied on camera the other day, saying that for all of the supporters (I'm paraphrasing) that "they've already built an offense around Tebow and he sucks. He takes sacks in less than 3 seconds, but every other quarterback deal with that." First, I didn't watch anything more than highlights of the last two starts (no LeaguePass for me, my Sundays are generally booked) but with two sick infants this weekend I got to watch the entire game. Tebow had designed rollouts, option reads, and 3 or 4 zipped-on-the-money passes to go with his 5 'WTF?' throws. He won his second game in three starts, and ran for over 100 yards while passing for 2 long-ish TDs. I haven't seen Hoge since then, and maybe he's apologized for his ridiculous comments, but I doubt it. He hasn't broken down Newton, or Colt McCoy, or Christian Ponder, or (heaven forbid) Charlie Whitehurst or Tavaris Jackson, so it's not just "Hoge breaking down the young quarterbacks to see who's crappy or not." At least when Gruden does his breakdowns in the offseason before the draft, he points out equally to the quarterbacks (from a coach's perspective) what he thinks they're doing right and wrong. And I've never seen Hoge break down how much Jay Cutler sucks because of the sacks he's taking.
But then I realized that it's not just the racial or Christian aspect, b/c:
Ray Lewis delivered on Sunday night one of the greater "Glory to God who ordained this win and dropped blessings into Torrey Smith's lap" post-game speeches ever on SNF. I'm way more of a whacky Christian than most on here, and it was like something I'd expect in a fiery Sunday-morning sermon where we didn't care who was listening--the Word was getting preached. Yet I've NEVER seen someone (even Hines Ward at his peak) that mocked Ray Lewis. They knew they'd get hammered.
Deion was flamboyantly Christian in his later career...never saw anyone mock him for it.
Kurt Warner's wife got more grief for their beliefs than Warner ever did.
Multiple Raiders came up to Tebow after the game, giving him handshakes and saying they were praying for him. It's not that Christianity (or any other religion) is a lightning rod in the league (though it does make people uncomfortable and gives way to people making "whacky Christian" comments), b/c a lot of players kneel for TDs, raise fingers to the sky, etc.
For me, (and I hate how this sounds, but I think it's true) it's bullying. A group of people buy into the incessant 24/7 coverage of this guy and, instead of picking him apart like analysts can (and do), they feed into the "there's a weaker player, and everyone's jumping on him with no repercussions, so I'm going to also." Combine that with Tebow doing the whole "I'm just going to take it like a man" thing. He's not standing there after the game saying "I'm shoving this game up the @$$ of all you haters, Eff you, come at me, bro! We're one game out! Suck it! I have as many wins in 3 games with this shit team that traded its best player than Cam Newton and Sam Bradford do!" No, he's saying "I wasn't good, I need to get better, I'm going to come in Monday and work hard."
One thing he's done is turn me into a guy who doesn't equate the Broncos with the L*kers anymore. Though it pains me that any success they have will go to Elway's credit. I really don't like that guy.
