The Tim Tebow-bashing has gone too far.
Gripe about his ability on the football field, if you want. If you are like me, it has likely been after he has torched your team again.
You can even poke fun at the fact that he cried after the Florida Gators lost in the SEC championship game. Of course, the people making fun did so out of jealousy because of the aforementioned point.
(I might interject that in 25 years of writing I have found that if you show me someone that sheds tears after losing a big game, I will show you someone that loses very few of them. But I digress.)
Talk about how he's not the prototype NFL quarterback, too. That's fair when you are talking about anyone that is playing a sport at the highest level.
But the latest round of attacks has crossed the line of questionable into the realm of the idiotic.
Tebow's crime? He's a Christian. And he's not afraid to speak up about it. You've seen countless photos of Tebow wearing his eye-black with a Bible verse inscribed.
And, unless you have been exiled to the outer reaches of the Yukon recently, you know that a firestorm has emerged about the story of how Tebow's mom, Pam, became seriously ill and was advised to terminate her fifth pregnancy. She refused to have the abortion and gave birth to a son who would go on to become one of the greatest college football players ever.
The story is going to be told during a Super Bowl commercial paid for by Focus on the Family.
Of course the National Organization for Women has begun howling in protest.
"This ad is frankly offensive, " Erin Matson, the Action Vice President of the National Organization for Women, was quoted as saying. "It is hate masquerading as love. It sends a message that abortion is always a mistake."
Let's see if I get this right. The story of a woman carrying her child to birth is a story of hate?
You have to wonder how low someone can go to make a ridiculous statement like that. Also, the commercial has not been aired. How does Matson know it is a “message of hate?"
Unless, of course, a “message of hate” is one that differs from the NOW's agenda.
Then there was the over-hyped Jay Mariotti's ridiculous rant on Fanhouse.
He said that this year we get to see commercials about “a smart-aleck baby,” and “Danica Patrick dressed as Marilyn Monroe” among other things.
He then decries the Focus on the Family commercial.
“There is a time and a place for serious crusades about life issues. A commercial during the NFL's championship game, our national holiday of fun and frolic and heavy drinking and heavier gambling, is not one of them. We're all impressed by the fascinating story of Pam Tebow, who was advised by a doctor in the Philippines to have an abortion in 1987 because of a life-threatening illness. She had the baby anyway during a mission trip, and, wonders be, her son grew up to become a Heisman Trophy winner, a two-time national football champion and one of the most inspirational collegiate athletes ever. But just as you don't have a Boy Scout convention in a casino, you do not take sides on a volatile issue -- pro-life -- during the Super Bowl,” he wrote.
Huh?
You give up who you are for a few hours of football? Because Jay Mariotti and those like him don't like the message?
(If you want to read Mariotti's column, here is the link: http://jay-mariotti.fanhouse.com/2010/01/27/super-bowl-no-place-for-tebows-views/#comments
As you can tell, I agree with Tebow's stance. The death of over a million babies a year in the name of “choice” is the greatest tragedy of our time.
And I admire Tim Tebow for taking a stand.
I noted that Mariotti had no problem with “Cheap Trick helping Audi with a cute environmental theme.”
What is the difference of taking an environmental theme and telling a pro-family story?
Tebow is within his right to say what is dear to his heart. If someone doesn't like it, he or she can turn the TV off during the commercial.
Tebow is living his life as he believes God wants him to do and does not answer to organizations like NOW or politically-correct writers who don't like the Christian message.
I wish all of us had the same backbone as Tim Tebow.
Our country would be a much better place.
