2012 NFL Pro Bowl Voting: Making a Case for Tim Tebow

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow finished third at his position in the AFC as far as the fan vote for the 2012 NFL Pro Bowl is concerned, meaning that he's closer to becoming a starter when the rosters will be announced on Dec. 27.

Though players' and coaches' votes also each make up a third of the final tally, if Tebow does end up with a spot on the AFC roster, he's earned it.

While the point of the Pro Bowl is to celebrate the NFL's best talent, it's also a venue for the league's biggest, most popular names to come together and celebrate the fact that they're the the most heralded players of the year according to their fans, their peers and their coaches.

Tebow, like it or not, is one of the most well-known and perhaps even well-liked players in the NFL. Now that he's a starting quarterback, he's only gotten that much more exposure, and it only makes sense that a glut of Pro Bowl fan votes would follow from it.

But he's also played relatively well, or well enough for a quarterback like Tebow, and well enough for the Broncos to win seven games and lose just two while he's been their starter.

Even if it's not supposed to be, the Pro Bowl is in many ways a popularity contest. That's why, year after year, players with a high level of name recognition end up voted into the game even if they're having a down year or are past their prime.

It's just the nature of a game that few take seriously anyway. Tebow is not the top vote-getting quarterback in the AFC—he didn't even garner the second-most votes. His 632,912 votes are less than half of the nearly 1.5 million nods in the New England Patriots' Tom Brady's favor.

If he gets voted in, he gets voted in. It doesn't damage the league nor the supposed reputation of the Pro Bowl. With all the attention Tebow has gotten this year, it makes sense that he'd receive many of the fans' votes. If the players and coaches follow suit, then he's earned his spot, simple as that.