Tim Tebow: Bill Romanowski Just Saying What We're All Thinking

In case you were at all curious about what he's thinking these days, former Denver Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski would like nothing more than to lay Tim Tebow out with one of the vicious hits he was known for during his career.

Well, if he wants. What Romanowski doesn't realize, however, is that he's going to have to get in line first.

Woah, this column is already starting to sound malicious. Better provide some context.

On Wednesday, Romanowski appeared on the Jim Rome Show and he proceeded to be, well, Bill Romanowski. He had some not-so-nice things to say about Minnesota Vikings quarterback Donovan McNabb, and then he turned his attention to Tebow.

“I would want to lay him out and put him into next year,” said Romanowski, via Pro Football Talk. “I’d have him so messed up mentally he’d be like, 'Oh, God, this Romanowski is crazy.'”

Not content to keep it at that, Romanowski also said that Tebow is best served playing on “some team that doesn’t have a chance in hell to go anywhere.” If so, I'd say Tebow is right where he belongs.

But never mind that. The thing that stands out here is Romanowski's violent fantasy about hitting Tebow hard enough to make him travel through time. It's right on par with what we know about Romanowski’s mental makeup, but my guess is that Tebow's most steadfast supporters must be pretty annoyed with these remarks anyway.

If you are, go right ahead. You're entitled. But just know that Romanowski is not alone in wanting to clean Tebow's clock. Especially not among current and former defensive players.

Listen, there aren't many defensive players in the NFL that are as crazy as Romanowski was (and apparently still is), but don't think for a second that there aren't any that live for the big hit. Heck, all of them do. Hitting people is their job, and hitting them hard is a perk.

Of course, delivering a big hit on a big-name player (i.e. Tebow) is an even bigger perk. No matter how good a quarterback, a running back, or a wide receiver might be, a big hit is a pretty darn good way to make him look human.

Call it a competitive instinct: to make the other guy look bad, cause physical harm.

We're not talking about just sports, either. No sir, we're talking about an instinct that all people feel. Particularly males. Directly or indirectly, whenever us men get the sense that somebody is better than us, odds are we're going to feel an urge to put them in their place by way of violence. This tendency doesn’t always come to fruition, but it definitely exists.

Shoot, I may as well admit that I too have thought about tackling Tebow with all my might. I know I can't, mind you, for he is much bigger and stronger and me. Better looking too, for what it's worth. But as the saying goes, a man can dream.

Given all this, you might be wondering how Tebow is at fault here. In all honesty, he's not. Unless I'm forgetting something, Tebow has never consciously done anything that actually deserved criticism. Sure, all of us mocked his recent comments to Woody Paige of the Denver Post, but those hardly constituted a crime. No matter what kind of crimes we’re talking about, Tebow doesn’t do them. In the truest sense of the term, he has always been a model citizen.

For that, many people love him. But by that same token, many people don't love him. For reasons that were discussed above, some people just don't like a goody two-shoes. What's worse, Tebow's legions of fans/apologists/worshipers have not done him any favors by emphasizing just how good Tebow's two shoes really are.

Basically, what we have in Tebow is a guy who through no fault of his own has a target hanging over his head. He is admittedly quite lucky that he has so many people to protect said target, but the fact of the matter is that people are going to keep taking shots at it as long as it's there. And make no mistake, Tebow's defenders are outnumbered in this fight.

So how does Tebow make his target go away? Well, ditching the goody two-shoes persona is not going to do the trick, that's for sure. The last thing anybody wants to see is Tebow turning into Matt Leinart.

Instead, I think the best thing for Tebow to do is to just keep working. There are plenty of people out there that he's never going to win over, but the haters will disappear in droves if he actually goes on to have a successful career in the NFL.

Because that's exactly what he wants to do with his life, Tebow should just stay the course.

-Zachary D. Rymer