I LOVE this article by Jen Floyd Engel from Fox Sports who calls out all of the Tim Tebow “haters” and asks them what they have against the Denver Broncos player. She cuts no corners and says it like it is, putting her emotions and opinions into a well-written story about how unfair it is to criticize someone who stays positive and who doesn’t waiver in his beliefs. Her main focus is on the Detroit Lions players who mocked Tebow by kneeling and pretending to pray to God, as Tebow has been known to do after a great play. This mockery has now been coined as “Tebowing” and the idea has gone viral.
Engel slams the people that take jabs at the Broncos player and says, “Tebow is just a guy with the good sense to say thanks. Instead of taking his cue, we mock his faith.”
This paragraph from the article says so much in just a few sentences.
What this whole repeating cycle of Tebow — rip his game, mock his faith, rise to his defense, repeat — has revealed about religious discourse in America is ugly. We have become so enamored of politically correct dogma that we protect every minority from even the slightest blush of insensitivity while letting the very institutions that the majority holds dear to be ridiculed. And this defense that Tebow invites such scrutiny with his willingness to publicly live as he privately believes calls into question what exactly it is we value.
Engel goes to on say that the attacks on Tebow seem to be more personal than anything else and if it were another religion being mocked, like Islam, there would be an abundance of apologies from the Lions players and staff and the idea of “Tebowing” would be quickly abolished.
We all know that media stories on Tim Tebow can be overdone and analyzed from every angle. Engel’s piece is the first that I’ve seen from a well-known sports station that writes such a strongly-worded article defending the faith and actions of a professional sports player. I, for one, was proud to read what she wrote. I respect a journalist who’s not afraid to turn it around and speak out against what is popular.
How do you feel about Tim Tebow? Do you think it is OK or a double standard that “Tebowing” has been permitted in a professional sport?