Righteous Judgement

If you read the Bible, no where does it say you are forbidden to judge other people. It does, however, tell you to judge righteously.

As a sports writer, judging the performance of players and coaches comes with the job description. My whole job is predicated on the freedom to judge every angle of a sporting event. Hell (don't judge me), but when I attend a game, I'm gonna judge the quality of the concessions and ease of parking.

For this particular article though, I'm going to provide judgement to the hottest topic in sports right now: Tim Tebow.

To do so, I'm going to follow the counsel of the good book and judge him righteously...

Every sports journalist in the country has weighed in on Tebow's performance. Most have bashed, slandered and ridiculed him, however, most have done so unrighteously.

Not to say Tebow hasn't played poorly in his two starts this season. He has missed open receivers on deep balls, taken sacks when he should have gotten rid of the ball and rarely gets beyond his second read when he drops back to pass. He simply hasn't looked comfortable in the pocket and has been too quick to tuck the ball and run.

There is though, a whole lot of perspective to go along side with those negatives. Tebow haters are quick to call this "excuse making", when in reality, poor performances are rarely the fault of one person.

Righteous judgements...

Inexperience

Tebow en route to the end zone

For all the hype around Tebow and all that he accomplished in college, he has only started five games in the NFL over two seasons. Let me repeat that, five. 

Most young quarterbacks struggle. Whether adjusting to the speed of the NFL, learning to read complex defenses or simply being drafted onto poor teams, every successful quarterback endured growing pains in this league. 

And lets be honest, young quarterbacks are normally drafted onto poor teams and it's takes years to surround that player with talent before a team begins to win. 

Petyon Manning went 3-13 his first year as a starter and led the league with 28 interceptions. This from a player most consider the most NFL ready quarterback of the past two decades.

Lack of talent around him

I hear sports commentators talk about the success of young QBs such as Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and Christian Ponder. However, they fail to mention the quality skill players surrounding those QBs. Cam Newton has a pair of solid running backs in D'Angelo Williams and Jonathon Stewart, in addition to receiving weapons, Steve Smith, Greg Olson and Jeremy Shockey. 

Dalton gets to throw to the best rookie WR in the league, AJ Green, and hands the ball off to an underrated Cedric Benson. Ponder, no big deal, he just has the best running back in the league, Adrian Peterson, to keep defenses honest while he throws to Tebow's former college teammate, Percy Harvin.

Tebow, he has an aging Willis MaGahee in his backfield and his best wideout is Eric Decker. They had Brandon Lloyd, but traded him the week before starting Tebow. I'm sure Tebow loved that. And it's not like he has a good line to throw behind either. Minus one decent lineman, Denver is in contention for the worst offensive line in the league.

In short, Tebow has a running game that scares no one, receivers no one has heard of and a line who can't block long enough to let Tebow get past that second read we talked about earlier.

Be patient and fair

Life in the NFL hasn't been easy for Tebow

Tebow has only started two games this season and is already being called a massive failure. Really? After only two games? Good thing these same experts weren't running the Colts in Peyton Manning's first season, otherwise he may have been demoted to the practice squad before he ever saw October.

One ESPN analyst said "He isn't getting better, he is getting worse!" Again, really? Can you really say someone is getting worse after only TWO GAMES? 

Let me point out that game one was against a terrible Miami Dolphins team, while game two was against a Detroit Lions team with a very good defense and a great shot at the playoffs.

Fact: Good teams make a lot of players look worse than they really are. Tony Romo looked terrible against the Eagles last week. Does that make him a bad QB? Of course not. It means the Eagles have a  strong defense and Romo had a bad game.

Poor playing calling

I'm not saying a good play caller would turn Tebow into a pro-bowler, but as commentator John Lynch said over and over during last week's game, "Denver's play calling isn't even giving Tebow a chance to succeed."

As a head coach, you see him in practice every week, so why ask him to do things you know he can't? Denver constantly had Tebow making five and seven step drops, throwing deep down field and asking him to make too many reads.

Can Tebow handle the pressure?

In each game, Tebow has struggled for three quarters before Denver has scrapped the game plan and let him do what he does best; short drops, screens, slants QB draws, and quick passes out of the shotgun. And guess what? Tebow suddenly looked like a guy who knew what he was doing.

This approach won't work forever, but you have to let the guy do the things he can do and hope he develops down the road. Every other team does this with young QBs, which makes you wonder why Denver doesn't. 

The bottom line, Tebow started the game 8 of 24 when they had him out of his comfort zone, but finished the game 10 of 15 once they moved him to the shotgun and let him do the things he does well.

Good guys finish last

By all accounts, Tebow is as good of a person as there is in the NFL. He has never been arrested or caught doing drugs. He doesn't ask for praise, deflects the attention he gets and speaks in prisons in his spare time, yet so many people want to see him fail.

This baffles me. We cheer for and support players who are constantly in the media for breaking the law, yet we root against Tebow because he doesn't consistently complete the deep ball yet.

I have a theory. People don't like seeing other people work so hard, be so successful and give so much of themselves because they feel bad for not working harder and doing more with their own lives. A guy like Tebow makes them feel lazy and selfish, so instead they root for guys who don't make them feel as bad about not doing more with their own lives.

Whether it's Tebow or any other athlete of high moral character, we should want that person to succeed so we can point to them as an example of someone who does it the right way.

We'll see what Tebow does with his opportunity to start in the NFL, but lets give it time and judge him righteously.