Tim Tebow Senior Bowl: Disaster or first step to NFL?
Most reviews would suggest this has been a bad week for Tim Tebow.
Already he's catching flak for an anti-abortion advertisement that will run during the Super Bowl, potentially politicizing the event for viewers.
Then on Saturday, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback 鈥� a two-time national champion and arguably one of the greatest players in college football history 鈥� played in the Senior Bowl to show pro scouts that he could run an offense at the pro level.
Instead, he appeared to prove his critics right. Here's a typical sampling:
"It's simple, he's just not a very good quarterback prospect," one National Football League scout told the this week.
With his performance at the Senior Bowl, 鈥淭ebow nearly guaranteed that he will not be drafted in the first round, or even the second round,鈥� suggested the .
ESPN鈥檚 Todd McShay said he 鈥渋s just not comfortable as a pro-style quarterback.鈥�
Yet one voice was not quite so pessimistic. He improved every day, and his presence at the Senior Bowl 鈥� a proving ground to college鈥檚 second-tier NFL prospects 鈥� was proof of his willingness to improve his fundamentals.
came from Tim Tebow himself.
Not your run-of-the-mill QB
Such headlong optimism might be easily dismissed in many cases. In Tebow鈥檚 case it is not.
Tebow has never been a quarterback in the classic mold.
From the vantage point of college football Saturday nights, he is merely a winner 鈥� a hybrid of running back and quarterback who can be as punishing with his leading shoulder as his left arm. (See a fan's homage .)
Whatever it takes to win, he does, even if it鈥檚 the awkward sight of the 鈥� a play not seen since 鈥渢hree yard and a cloud of dust鈥� was the height of offensive invention.
From the vantage point of pro football Sundays, however, he is a nettle of bad habits and bad form. In the turbo-charged NFL, where a fraction of a second can be the difference between a completed pass and a taste of the turf, courtesy a blitzing linebacker, Tebow鈥檚 throwing motion is a sack waiting to happen 鈥� a windmill motion that takes an age to complete.
And in the NFL, where both his size and his speed will be ordinary, the prospect of bowling over defenses is far-fetched, at best.
Which leaves Tebow as a player with an impeccable record and a deeply fallible set of skills.
A man of uncommon dedication
Yet repeatedly this week, Tebow has acknowledged these flaws. To critics, they were exposed cruelly in Tebow鈥檚 poor performance in Saturday鈥檚 Senior Bowl: two fumbles, four yards rushing, and 50 yards passing on 12 attempts. To Tebow, however, the bowl was merely the first step in a professional renaissance.
And Tebow has proven himself a player of uncommon determination. In a speech that has become legendary in northern Florida, Tebow made what has become known as 鈥溾�� after a loss with the Florida Gators in 2008.
鈥淚 promise you one thing,鈥� he said to the media after the loss to Ole Miss. 鈥� A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the regular season.鈥�
Florida went on to win the national championship, and Tebow鈥檚 pledge is now outside the football complex.
At least one NFL quarterbacks coach, Jim Zorn of the Baltimore Ravens, was not dismissive of Tebow鈥檚 ability to reinvent himself.
"You can see that he takes to coaching," Zorn said at the Senior Bowl while watching Tebow throw. "Somebody is going to get a young man that is really going to work hard to be successful.鈥�
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