Why Tim Tebow Was Still In The Game: Style Points in The BCS Era

(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Just like that... his life flashed before my eyes.

You might have noticed a huge change in atmospheric pressure on Planet Earth Saturday night. It's possible that the Earth may have even shifted off of it's axis a bit.

Do not be alarmed; there are no meteors approaching and the planet's core is plenty stable.

What you felt was the collective GASP of the Gator Nation, followed by the proverbial shift of the Earth as "The Man of Steel" came crashing to the ground.

I tend to stay away from the "Superman" references when talking about Tim Tebow, as he is just a college kid who happens to run the spread offense differently than anybody we've ever seen. However, the more I know of him and what he represents, the more I understand the reference.

I didn't care much for it until I started seeing young children's reactions when seeing him or talking about him. For those of you who don't care about Florida football or care FOR it, you may not understand or even want to, but this young man means so much more to this community than a National Championship or two.

He truly is what we would want our sons to grow up to be and what we'd want our daughters to bring home to have dinner.

He is what we'd ask from a STUDENT-Athlete.

He is the kind of person we want our children to grow up admiring.

He is an unapologetic-ally true to his faith.

He is the face of college football this decade.

He is lying on his back... and he is not moving.

I'd be completely fooling myself if the thought of where Florida's season was going didn't flash through my mind, but that only happened once he sat up. At that moment, when the camera panned in on Tim laying on his back, chest rising up and down at an alarming rate, with his hands briefly at his sides in the air with his fingers spread out as if he still had the ball, my first thought was, "Timmy, just let me see you shake your legs".

I feel guilty for just hoping that he would lay on the ground and writhe around in pain, just to let us know that he could move his arms and legs.

His offensive lineman reached down to grab his hand to help him up. He pulled Timmy's hand from the ground and as it slipped through his teammates grip, it fell to the ground , showing as much life as anvil.

When the smoke cleared (and literally, Taylor Wyndam's hit on Tebow may have left a vapor trail), Tebow was helped up and to the sideline. Rumor has is it that when he came to, the first words out of his mouth were, "Did I hold onto the ball?".

The rumors that his next words were, "Man these guys from Troy sure do hit hard" are unfounded.

As we were discovering that he would likely be OK, and that at least he could walk and support his own weight on his own (although, now that I think of it, I never saw him standing afterwards), we began to look for someone to blame for this.

The prime suspects were:

Whoever was supposed to block the right defensive end. The right side D-End came in completely unabated, giving Tebow only about 1.2 seconds to find his target.

Taylor Wyndham- The aformentioned Kentucky defensive end who laid the hit of a lifetime on Tebow. After the first replay, we started screaming that he led with his helmet (his helmet was at Tebow's chest and actually had nothing to do with the head injury).

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