And, if it's fawning, whatever for?
Okay, one of the Kos insiders wanted to know why I hate-rated a LONG front page piece: There's no great mystery: Tim Tebow is a great athlete. I wanted to express my dissatisfaction with this diary in a more palpable way than I could as the 255th commenter. It works on several levels:
1) Perhaps he is, but why a long piece on religion and pro football framed this way?
2) This is not the type of thing we do well at Kos.
3) I'm not at all sure we should be praising anyone who's a divider whether he intends to be or not.
Follow me below the magic orange squiggle for more.
First, there's the story. Frankly, if a political blog wants to do this, Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money gets it just right for me. Brief, using a rapier. Not this:
One of the themes behind the Tebow religious hype is that he is exceeding expectations, which reinforces the theme that his religion may be at least part of the reason for it. But is he really exceeding expectations, and if so could there be other explanations for it? Let's consider some examples of quarterbacks who clearly did exceed expectations.
Analyze, analyze, analyze. It's actually nice to learn that Aaron Rodgers is just as devout but he doesn't wear his faith onto the field. Why not analyze what's fueled Tebowmania instead of the Sports Illustrated analysis? That kind of analysis is what we do well here, and let's render unto SI that which is SI's.
Beside, there's another element involved here, and I'm not sure it ever occurs to your Christian writers that when a Muslim or a Jew looks at praying on the field, or even the finger-pointing-to-the-sky gesture, it has an entirely different meaning. For you, maybe it's exhibitionism, but it's harmless. For us, it's William Boykin saying "My god is bigger than yours." Okay, maybe not to all of us, but to (liberal, secular) Jewish me, it is. It's everywhere too. Here's part of an interview from the guys who finished fourth on the latest Amazing Race:
HitFix: How did you guys feel about the way your religion was depicted during the season? Some episodes it was never mentioned and other episodes, it felt very central...
Andy: We weren't coming out and being real loud about it, but it was part of our strategy as Racers. I think that's why it became part of the story. A lot of people felt like we were trying to preach, but it was our strategy. It was to lean on God and faith and to surrender to Him every day. That's what we try to do in our everyday life is to surrender to Him and go where He leads us, so it was a huge part of our Race and it is a huge part of how Tommy and I approach each other in our friendship and as teammates as we were racing. I think the show chose to add it into the show when it played more of a role, even though it was kinda there every day. It wasn't something that we came out just talking about, but since we were in the Buddhist temples and there was definitely stuff about God and religion around us, so it came up.
THAT's what annoyed me about what seemed to be an encouragement of Tim Tebow and all he represents. Flame me if you like.
8:29 PM PT: Okay. I removed the hate rating. I think I made my point.