For having never seen a Broncos game in my life, I think it's pretty amazing that I've seen almost ever one of Denver's football games this season. I can't quite believe it now that I think about it. I'm a professed Cowboys fan, but I guess not enough to actually watch the games...
But I still remember that first Sunday in my new apartment. My roommates, Dan and Dave, who happen to be from Denver asked me "Do you have a team?". "Well I'm a Cowboys fan, myself.", I replied. From what I remember, their response was something like "get out". Yeah, that's right, they're that hard core.
But I soon realized that it was not just the team that they were rallying behind, but a man, a quarterback newly drafted from Florida, named Tim Tebow.
My roommates wanted the Broncos to win but they wanted that man to do it. Somehow they knew that victory for the Broncos would only be at his hand. How? I had no clue. I had never even heard of the guy before. But for three games, his name was all I heard. How the coach didn't like him and refused to start him, how he was equally loved and looked down upon by hundreds of thousands of people, and how he was the future of the Broncos and many even the NFL. They talked him up so much that by the time the coach got tired of losing and put Tebow in, I was genuinely curious as to what this man had or did that made him so popular yet so controversial.
Maybe he's killed people, I thought. Or maybe he's like Lady Gaga and wears revealing/edible clothing on the weekends. It had to be something like that. I was sure of it. Making a spectacle of themselves is all people seem to know how to do these days, especially if they want attention from the media. But I suppose I was wrong. Very wrong. As I watched a very normal person stride onto the field, I understood it all as I saw him take a knee, close his, eyes, and bow his head in prayer. It didn't make any sense. I had never seen any football player, much less someone in the NFL, pray so openly before a game.
To make a long story short, they won that game. And the next game. And the next and the next. And it seemed like everyone had something to say about the man. About how he played, how he lived his life, and especially how open he was about his Christian beliefs. I knew Tim Tebow was a big deal in Colorado but I underestimated quickly just how popular and widely known he really was. After that first game, it seemed like everyone was talking about him. One week my religion professor even asked us if we had heard of him. "Really? Are you serious?" I thought. I couldn't help but wonder how my roommates had gotten to him so quickly. He then told us that a reporter had contacted him because he had seen that my professor had published a few articles on the New Testament AND that he had been a quarterback at his college. Apparently, the reporter was doing an article on Tim Tebow and he wanted another religious quarterback's opinion on whether religion had a place in football.
It was in that moment, I realized this Tebow was changing the way the world (and by the world, I mean the United States of course) saw American football and even NFL quarterbacks. Professional football players are supposed to be those guys that are so rich they can have all the women, cars, houses, summer homes, expensive yachts, and illegal drugs that they can get their little hands on. But Tebow is different. He cares about his fans, he cares about the children that see him as their hero, and he cares about believing in something despite what people say about it. When reporters congratulate him for his wins, he always changes the subject and gives the praise to his team, his coach, his God, anyone but himself. He has shown the world that it is alright to fight for what you believe in, in places where you are alone in your beliefs. It's a funny thing, you know. All this hype, all these fans, all this publicity. It's just because the nation has found a genuinely sincere human being somewhere they never thought to look before.
Honestly, it just doesn't make sense. But at least to me, the greatest things never do.
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