The legend of Tim Tebow lives to play another day.
I don’t know what to make of the Broncos’ new starting quarterback, but after Sunday’s thrilling come-from-behind victory over the winless Miami Dolphins this much is clear – Tebow’s innate ability to overcome adversity in high pressure situations will preserve his time in Denver. Despite a dreadful performance in the first 55 minutes of the game, the former Heisman Trophy winner rallied the Broncos, scoring two touchdowns in a five minute span to tie the game at 15-15 going into overtime.
A big defensive play and a lucky onside kick helped the unpolished Tebow complete the victory as the Broncos stormed back with 18 unanswered points to avoid what could have easily been the worst loss in franchise history.
Instead of talking about Andrew Luck and the prospects of potentially being worse than last season’s historically abysmal mark of 4-12, the team and its fanbase can look forward to its remaining ten games, because they have a quarterback who refuses to lose.
Tebow’s resilience led to a miracle on Sunday, and fans shouldn’t forget that. He once again displayed the intangibles that intrigued former head coach Josh McDaniels enough to burn a first round selection on the oft-criticized young leader.
While Tebow is nowhere close to being a legitimate NFL passer, he is a legitimate NFL player and he is not going away anytime soon. A player with that rare blend of charisma, heart and intelligence is not someone that should be overlooked, or under-appreciated. He is without a doubt a work in progress, but the fact remains he has something that the other 52 guys on the field don’t have. But what is “it”?
“Without a doubt, not everybody that plays in this league or any league has ‘it,'” Broncos head coach John Fox said, praising Tebow. “It’s a great quality to have. We got a guy, No. 7 [John Elway], who I work with every day; he had ‘it.'”
Although the “it” can’t be defined, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for Tebow. In his short NFL career, the headline-making QB has won two of four starts. This is for a team that owns the worst record in the NFL dating back to week 7 of the 2009 season.
“As a football player, as an athlete, you can’t lose confidence in yourself,” Tebow said. “Because if you do, then you’ve lost already. More importantly, I kept believing in the people around me that eventually we were going to be able to get things going. Eventually we did.”
Maybe it’s Tebow’s belief in a higher power that fuels his perseverance on the football field; maybe it’s his ability to never give up himself or others around him; and maybe, most of all, it’s his calling to take the Broncos to the promise land.
A lot is unclear at this point thanks to his shaky first start in Miami. However, what needs to be the point of focus from all the newly raised questions and critiques is the fact Tebow is 1-0 as a starter for the Broncos in 2011.
It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.
