Why Tim Tebow Is NOT the Best Ever

Florida Gator, SEC, and Tim Tebow fans are right now cringing, thinking, "Oh no, not another 'Tim Tebow is overrated' article!" Well, this is one from someone who is motivated by something other than sour grapes, someone who actually is a supporter of Tebow and, while not actually a fan of Florida, much preferred to see an SEC team winning a national title in 1996, 2006, and 2008 than FSU, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.

But calling Tim Tebow "the greatest ever" at this point is so unjustified, and further, the people who engage in this nonsense do so by committing a rotten, lowdown, dirty trick. What am I speaking of? Such people do so by pretending that the college career of Chris Leak did not exist.

Chris Leak? Remember him? He may be easy to forget, as his college career before the arrival of Urban Meyer to Gainesville was unspectacular. However, that was through no fault of his own, but his coach Ron Zook.

Also, his professional career since has been even more disappointing, failing to receive even the obligatory courtesy of getting drafted in the bottom of the seventh round for A) being a successful starting QB at a major school and B) winning a national title. He is now trying to make his way in the Canadian Football League.

Well, as easy as it is to push Leak aside in favor of his more celebrated and indeed better successor, it is still wrong. Leak was the unquestioned starter of the 2006 national championship team. The whole "Tim Tebow is the greatest ever" argument is based on either forgetting that fact entirely (by failing to mention it), or if it is mentioned, pretending as if Florida had some co-starter/two-QB arrangement.

Even the latter, depicting Tebow as some kind of "co-QB," is false. Do not get me wrong, Tebow was a vital piece of the 2006 team, not only giving them the semblance of a running game that they otherwise lacked, but also throwing two TD passes in a critical game against LSU, and giving Urban Meyer the ability to effectively run some elements of his offense situationally.

But even appropriately crediting him for all that, Tebow had only 358 passing yards and 469 rushing yards in 2006. So that is 827 total yards for Tebow versus Leak's 2,950 yards passing.

When you consider that nearly half of Tebow's 827 yards that year came against Western Carolina (250 yards) and Central Florida (140 yards), claiming that "Tim Tebow was a part-time starter and the reason why Florida won the national title that year," as the Sporting News does in one of their "Tim Tebow greatest ever" articles, is not an exaggeration.

It is a lie—a dishonest lie that does disservice to Chris Leak (whom a lot of people forget went 8-5 with a victory over national champs LSU in 2004 and 9-3 as a starter with a victory over SEC champs UGA in 2005, and was an accomplished SEC QB before Tebow ever arrived on campus).

So was Tim Tebow A REASON? Of course. But so was Percy Harvin. As a matter of fact, so were the nine Florida Gators who were drafted that year. This included practically their entire defensive line and secondary, most prominently first round picks Jarvis Moss and Reggie Nelson. You know, guys who actually started.

Tebow was nothing but a role player that year, and a backup to a QB in Leak that despite less than ideal circumstances (two head coaches, three offensive coordinators, and the last two years of his career in an offense that did not fit his talents, and oh yes, a significant portion of the Florida Gator fan base that hated his guts and scapegoated him for Ron Zook's failures) still managed to set a bunch of passing records.

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