Tim Tebow: a really talentd sportsman having mysterious appeal

Tim Tebow, the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, is a marginally talented athlete so overhyped. With Tebow routinely falling to his feet on a playing field, the sporting public has fallen to its feet.

The ESPN poll this week revealed the Broncos' QB to be America's favorite active pro athlete. Only 11 athletes total, in the 18 years of this poll, have reached No. 1 status and most of them were in the stratosphere of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Tiger Woods. On the heels of that poll, ESPN did an hour midday special on Tebowmania Thursday as a prelude to Denver's AFC playoff game against New England, which took place Saturday night. Tebow's jersey is the No. 2 current best seller in America, a couple of sleeves behind Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.

Now I'm not going to go all Charles Barkley on you here - last week on my radio show, Barkley said in reference to Tebow that "the national nightmare continues," prompting an inquiry to me for a comment from something called the Christian Post - but isn't this hype a bit ridiculous? I mean, the same ESPN was skewered for years by sports fans worldwide for overhyping Brett Favre - who, by the way, is a Hall of Famer. And now they worship Tim Tebow?

Just what is it that has made this kid connect with the American public? It's time to put the issue through the Missanelli Analysis Machine.

1. We are sick of the renegade jock. In a world where football players quit on their teammates in the huddle, then rip them anonymously after the game, or take guns into nightclubs and make it rain in stripper joints, or ply themselves with performance-enhancing drugs, Tebow has carved out a persona of everything that's good and right with the sports world.

He's a clean-cut, polite, appreciative kid who honors his Christian faith. He's the boy you want your daughter to date. On that note, another national poll revealed that 43 percent of Americans believe Tebow's success is a product of divine intervention. Christians have been waiting on Tim . . . er . . . Him for a long time.