Fifteen On The Field, Number One in Our Hearts: I Will Miss Tim Tebow

I love Tim Tebow.  There I said it.  Say what you want about his professional prospects you can't deny Tim Tebow is in the Pantheon of college football players, heck college athletes.  Goofy wind up throwing delivery and all Tebow left an indelible footprint of college football.

Seriously can you think of one college football who has been so iconic?  Normally football players become icons and legends in the NFL.  Tim Tebow is an icon.  His name belongs up there with the Archie Griffin's, Herschel Walker's and Roger Staubauch's when it comes to the college game.

He will be remembered forever in Gainesville and the rest of America for his fiery spirit, will to win, iconic upward arm thrusts (right up there with the Tiger fist pump, Daunte Culpepper fist roll/traveling violation call celebration, and MJ shoulder shrug on the Mount Rushmore of celebrations), and the Bible verse eye black.  He will be remembered for winning the Heisman, starting for a National Championship winner, and being a key component in another title run.  I mean do you really think Florida wins that 2006 championship without Tebow?  I don't.

In an era where our athletes try and duck the role model persona, Tim Tebow embraces it.  Tebow lives and breathes it.  In a time when Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant's are all too common Tebow lives what he preaches.  Tebow does missionary work in the Philippines and to prisoners. 

Another unfortunate sign of the times is athletes who don't really care.  Too many athletes are in it for the big paycheck and the fame.  Winning is secondary to far too many athletes.  Not Tebow.  Tebow inherited the MJ "cares just a litte too much" gene and that's a good thing.  Tebow is selfless.  He does what it takes to win.  You want him to run?  Got it.  Throw?  Got it.  Block?  Got it.  I'd imagine he'd even play on the defensive line if that's what it took. 

It's unfortunate that the second to last game in Tebow's brilliant college career went the way it went.  It's a travesty that for many people the lasting image of Tebow will be in tears on the business end of a blowout.  And honestly, what's the big deal that he cried?  It shows that he cares.  I'd prefer that over Randy Moss walking out on his team while he was with the Vikings.  Tebow had to carry the entire state of Florida on his shoulders and feels like he let them down.  His college career was coming to a close and he just got punched in the gut by a hungry Alabama team.  Cut the guy some slack.  Too me that was the release of a long, stressful year in which he was asked to do everything and more for Florida.

I mean did any college player mean as much to their team as Tebow?  Or to his fans?  I mean I watched the concussion heard 'round the world live.  You should have seen the fans in the stands, or even my wife in the living room. (the biggest Gator fan I know)  It was like they had just witnessed their parents get killed.  I didn't grow up a Gator fan, but I married one so naturally I watched a lot of Gator games.  And dang it I just have to say it, Tim Tebow made Saturdays fun.  You never knew what he was going to do.  No college player had such a feel for the moment.  He elevated his play in the biggest stages, with the jump passes in money time, or the how about a whole situation in a game being named after him?  I mean ask any Florida fan, or fan of college in general what "Tebow Time" was and they could tell you.

His main fault is that he just cares a little bit too much.  Sometimes he would push the issue too much because he needed to.  He needed to win.  He had to.  It's his addiction.  There will never be another Tim Tebow.  There will be dozens more Jimmy Clausen's, Sam Bradford's, Mark Ingram's, but there will never be another Tim Tebow.

So I close this out saying I hope Tebow goes out with a bang.  I hope he has the game of his life against the Bearcats.  He deserves it.  It would be a shame for a career that outstanding to go out on back to back sour notes.  I just can't envision Tebow letting his team fail.  He will find a way to win.  He usually does no matter the what the critics or haters have to say.