NFL Playoffs 2012: The Denver Broncos and the 5 Reasons I Became a Tebow-Leiver

Time and time again, I vehemently wrote against Tim Tebow.

If you don't believe me, check out some of my previous articles. I have written that he was not a quality quarterback, and he did not belong in the National Football League, at least not as a starter. I wrote that he couldn't pass, couldn't think, and if he loved to run so much, he should have taken up athletics.

I wrote that the San Diego Chargers would win the division. The Chicago Bears would shut down the Tebow offense. And recently, the Pittsburgh Steelers would wipe the floor with the Broncos in the AFC Wild Card Game this weekend.

And like the other two times, I was wrong today about the Denver Broncos.

Maybe I'm not wrong about the throwing, or the thinking, or the athletics; that's another argument for another time, but I was definitely wrong about one thing.

I was wrong about the Denver Broncos.

And after they were the ones celebrating wildly when the Pittsburgh Steelers had their heads slumped in their hands, it's time to confess that I'm on board with the Tebow train.

It's not the hype that has sold me. It's not the fancy Twitter hash-tags or the pose (in fact, I don't think I'll ever like the pose).

No, Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos have sold me on the one most important thing—they can win football games and they can do it playing quality football.

That's the thing they showed the most out of the Steelers victory. The Broncos are a legitimate playoff football team and deserve more respect than I've probably given them lately.

Part of the loss was simply poor defending by the Steelers and even poorer offense in the first half at times. That's not to take anything away from a Bronco side that deserved a playoff victory at home.

And before I go out and tip the Patriots to beat them comfortably—which I still fully expect them to do—here are the five things that sold me on Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.

1. Tim Tebow commands like a quarterback.

For all of my Tebow-hating days, my biggest problem with him was that he wasn't a quality quarterback. He couldn't complete a pass for several weeks, and couldn't win unless the other team played so poorly that their coach wanted to fire himself.

However, watching the Broncos play today, I've realized that Tebow is a real, genuine quarterback because he commands the offense like a real, genuine quarterback.

When you watch Brady, Brees and Rodgers play, they have the offense going exactly how they want it to go. The offensive line knows their job, and the receiving core knows theirs. They want to thrive for their quarterback and for their team.

And that's what Tebow has going in Denver. He commands the offense like a general. When he's on fire, the offense and the entire side really, is also on fire.

That's what a real quarterback does to a team.

2. Tim Tebow won the game for the Denver Broncos.

Probably the second-biggest thing that killed my Tebow-liking was the fact that every time the Broncos won, it was Tebow that did it. Yet every time the Broncos lost, it was the defense's fault for not stepping up to the mark.

Take the Chicago game, where Marion Barber decides to run out of bounds and then give the ball to the other team. Somehow Tebow got all the credit. Or, Matt Prater hits a 59-yarder, and it's Tebow's name in the papers.

This game was different because down the stretch, in the biggest game of his life, Tebow won the game for the Denver Broncos.

Did the defense stand tough? Not as much as they would have liked.

Did the Steelers hand the ball and field possession to the Broncos on a platter? Not in the slightest.

But Tebow scored the points, led the offense, and won the game for his side, just like a real quarterback does.

3. Tim Tebow threw the football, and he threw it well.

When you enter the NFL playoffs with a completion rate of less than 50 percent as a starting quarterback, you're going to get some criticism, especially when the week before, you went 6-from-22 for 60 yards and had plenty of turnovers.

And Tim Tebow is never going to have the yards pile up like Drew Brees. He's not going to have the receiving core and accuracy of Aaron Rodgers. He's not going to be the clutch player that Tom Brady can be. But today, in his first playoff game, he was pretty darn good.

For a guy who can't throw the ball supposedly, Tebow threw completions of 51 yards, 30 yards, 58 yards, 40 yards and 80 yards; two of which were touchdowns and the last which occurred on the first play of overtime.

Again, that is not bad for a guy who can't throw the ball.

Haters are going to say it was poor coverage by the Steelers' defense, and I'll agree with you 100 percent on that one. Although at the end of the day, no matter how much Ike Taylor is getting burnt, you've still got to make the throw. You've still got to score the touchdown.

And at the end of the day, despite another sub-50 percent completion game, 316 yards for two touchdowns, and no interceptions for an overtime victory, players will take that every day of the week.

The very thing that Tebow struggled to do early on in his career in throwing completions, he's now doing far more successfully than anybody probably imagined.

4. Tim Tebow makes the rest of the team play well.

This is something I never quite agreed with, until watching the Broncos play this game.

When the offense is playing well, the defense plays well to make stops and take interceptions and get the offense back on the field. When Tebow's playing well, the field-goal unit doesn't want to let the rest of the offense down, so they make field goals.

It's a well-oiled machine that works in a symbiotic relationship, inextricably mixed in with itself. In English, it means that they're so tight you can't separate them, and they all help each other play better.

Maybe it was the sight of Tebow running down the sidelines after Roethlisberger threw an interception, all pumped up and cheering on the defense and the special teams units to do the same. Or, maybe it was just watching the whole Denver team jump up and down on that final play.

Either way, Tim Tebow has something going on in that Denver team, and he's got the whole team going with him. He is driving this team to success, like a genuine quarterback does.

5. Tim Tebow proves his critics wrong.

Perhaps this is the one that rings most true for me, and all the other Tebow-haters and ex-haters out there. For all the criticism that Tebow faces, he still wins football games. When all is said and done, that's all that counts.

The Patriots' 16-0 season has been flawed, why? They lost the Super Bowl.

Similarly, all Tebow's throwing inadequacies, or his run-happy nature, or his stupid poses count for nothing if the Broncos win football games.

Every time that side chalks up a win, they prove the critics wrong. Every time Tebow leads his team to victory and touchdowns, he proves his critics wrong. When they say you have to throw it, he runs and leads them to victory. And when they say he can't throw, he throws it and throws 80-yard, game-winning touchdowns.

I'm not jumping on the bandwagon. It's more of a gradual few steps that I've taken in recent weeks to realize and appreciate what Tim Tebow is doing for the Denver Broncos, which he's doing it as a 100 percent legitimate quarterback.

What I am saying is that haters need to back off, because the Broncos are two wins away from the Super Bowl, and they've won games to get there. Don't hype the kid up too much, for he is only one player on a team. Yet at the same time, recognize the fact that he's leading this team very, very well.

I'm not buying a jersey and I'm not putting up posters around my room, not just yet anyway. They've still got Tom Brady in New England to get past, and if last time is anything to go by, the Tebow-led Broncos are in for a tough run.

If they can get past the Patriots though, maybe then I'll think about getting myself a No. 15 jersey.

Maybe.