Another Tim Tebow Story

Aside from being the best hit-generating name for any blogger's website, Tim Tebow is also the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. And as Tebow just put up a horrendous line in the Broncos' Week 7 loss to the Lions, we're likely to hear even more debates as to whether he can succeed in the NFL. But instead of starting that debate, let's revisit the entire reason Tebow doubters don't believe he can be successful.

Flawed mechanics, in addition to his inability to read coverages well, have always been one of the biggest arguments for those who believe Tebow can't succeed as a quarterback in the NFL. Though mechanics are clearly not something that can be fixed overnight, not being able to generate much of a threat in the passing game even with his adjustments since college have to be a concern for Broncos coaches and fans alike.

I decided to dive deep into the alternate universe run by Tim Tebow himself, and I was able to uncover a couple interesting quotes. First, I took a look at his high school recruiting profile from Scout.com. In it, Tebow offered the following quote:

I'm a real open-minded person and I'd say one of my greatest strengths is listening to people and learning from them, so that I can get better. I want to work on making my reads quicker and faster, and I want to get the ball into the right hands to make plays. I just want to do everything faster.

It's clear that Tebow understood the flaws in his game, despite clearly not having to deal with too much adversity from being far and away the best player every time he stepped on to a high school field. Fast forward to pre-Draft in 2010, and this quote from Tebow in the USA Today should look vaguely familiar:

"I'm definitely open to improving my fundamentals," he said. "I think I showed that by working and improving every day."

 You can draw two conclusions from the previous two quotes. Either the real Tim Tebow was kidnapped by aliens before the start of his college career and returned to Earth in time for the NFL Draft, without improving on his mechanics while in space OR nothing changed during his time as a Florida Gator.

In a sense, Tim Tebow enjoyed eight years of high school that enabled him to maintain the same mechanics that didn't alter his status as the best player on the football field at any given time. He was always bigger, faster, stronger, religious-er, and often times smarter, than both his high school and collegiate counterparts.

One of his biggest proponents, his former coach Urban Meyer, recently argued that Tebow (and his other former QB Alex Smith) shouldn't be ridiculed for their performance based on the fact that the team around them isn't good to begin with. Though Meyer is certainly right that quarterbacks often times look worse than they actually are on bad teams, it seems to be a bit hypocritical.

The Gators went 48-7 during Tebow's four years on campus, including four bowl wins and two national championships. It's hard to say whether or not changing Tebow's mechanics would have cost the Gators any wins, but the team around him certainly wasn't "bad" by Meyer's standards. If Urban Meyer was truly set on helping Tebow to become the best quarterback he could be, these changes that Tebow was clearly willing to make should very well have been implemented the moment he stepped on campus.

I obviously understand the argument that as a college coach, your only goal is to win, and Meyer certainly did that. Sometimes you would rather exploit opponents through your best players' strengths instead of working to alter them long-term that could jeopardize your wins in the short-term.

In his role as the full-time starter (2007-09), Florida's average margin of victory was 29 points. In the team's six losses, they lost by an average of just 7.5 points. With how good the Gators surrounding Tebow were, with elite athletes at nearly every position on the field, I find it hard to believe that making an honest effort to turn Timmy into a more proficient and NFL-ready passer would have actually harmed Florida's chances of success.

So as we begin another week of nonstop Tim Tebow debates, let's not forget that one of his biggest supporters should probably share a bit more of the scrutiny than he is at the moment.