Denver Broncos: Tebow Showed Us How to Respond to Adversity by Beating Steelers

For the Denver Broncos there was not a more perfect time to end their season long streak of predictability than on the first play of overtime in their AFC wild-card matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

When Tebow broke the huddle and lined up in the shotgun formation, I leaned back in my chair and thought to myself, "here comes another quarterback read option, that will end with a two or three yard Willis McGahee run."  Apparently everyone watching, including the Pittsburgh Steelers' exposed secondary thought the same thing. 

As the Steelers' secondary rushed into the box to stop the Tebow and McGahee, Demaryius Thomas broke free, catching a perfect 20 yard spiral from Tebow and running it another 60 yards to the end-zone for a Broncos overtime playoff win.

Yes, that 80-yard touchdown reception will go down as one of the greatest plays in playoff history, but something more important than the touchdown happened on the play, and that was the fact that the Broncos finally trusted Tim Tebow to be the winner that he always has been.

Just days before the Broncos' playoff matchup with the Steelers, John Elway, the vice president of football operations for the Broncos, came out and called Tebow out for hesitating too much and not just going out and playing the game. Calling Tebow out proved to be exactly what Tebow needed.

That wasn't the first time Tebow was called out by John Elway.  In early November when Elway was asked if the team was any closer to having a quarterback on the team, he responded with a resounding "no".  Sure that sounds harsh, but it was a valid opinion at the time and one that didn't get Tebow frazzled one bit.

It's not important what was said about Tebow, who called him out or what people think of him. The most important lesson to take away from this is how Tim Tebow responded to it all.

There hasn't been a quarterback in recent memory who faced more adversity, more doubt and more disapproval than Tim Tebow and he responded to it like he did Sunday night with poise and humility. Tebow didn't take people's criticism, his coaches and front office's disbelief in him and simply discount it like most of us do with criticism.  Tebow heard what they said and responded to it by becoming better at what he does, which is being an NFL quarterback.

Tebow took what his critics said, assessed the reality of their criticisms and used what they said to make himself better, and that is something we all can learn from him.

Tebow didn't lash out the lack of trust his team and front office had in him.  He responded with maturity, simply developing over time into the quarterback that he is today. 

Sure some people will still question his accuracy, his ability to lead a team at the quarterback position and his spiritual authenticity, but there is no doubting one thing; and that is his proven ability to overcome adversity and do so with maturity and humility. 

Adversity is something we all will face at one time or another in life and the way we respond to it is more important than the actual outcome. Responding to adversity, and at times people's doubt in who we are, is a part of growing up. We all must learn to accept adversity and criticism and do so in a way that makes us better at what we do and who we are as a human being.

If Tim Tebow has taught me one thing, it is that no matter what people think or say about you be true to yourself while always being willing to change aspects of what you do in the hopes of becoming a more complete person.