What if Pittsburgh drafts Tebow?

I know this is a sports post... but it isn't really about sports...or is it? The NFL draft is hours away, and one of the most talked about prospects faces a major hurdle that might prevent some teams from drafting him... his Christianity.

As a Michigan fan, I never really cared much for the Tim Tebow hype, until I learned that he appeared to be a pretty upstanding guy. For those that don't know, Tebow was the Quarterback at Florida, won a Heisman Trophy, and was thrust to the center of the stage on more than one occasion for being a great....... Christian.

This has been a constant focus since about two years ago when Tebow came out and proclaimed that he is a Virgin. Since then, the media onslaught of "Is Tim Tebow the Good Guy Everyone Claims That He Is" headlines have been unceasing. The question has been asked whether a team is ready for that kind of "attention." Which is odd... because Tebow has another "problem."

Tebow was a great COLLEGE quarterback. He ran an offense in a system that was built around him and his skill set... or was it? You see, the system that Florida ran isn't a PRO style offense. Meaning... that Tebow played a style of football that doesn't really translate well to the pros. If you aren't an avid football fan you might say, "does that matter?" Well most of the time it does matter. But in Tebow's case, many think his raw athletic talent should be enough.

Then there is the question about his THROWING technique. This has been called into question, and he actually worked on it, attempting to change it prior to the draft. This is a pretty big change. You would think that hours before the draft that the number one thing writers would be discussing is his style of quarterback or his throwing motion.

You would be wrong. Instead, they are talking about his Christianity. Why is that? Should that be an "issue"? Well it is... and a BIG ONE:

Nothing will divide quite like religion. And while football often embraces Christianity and legions of the NFL’s top players have carried the cross with various levels of openness, there has never been a player like Tebow who so boldly, so proudly and so gracefully expressed devotion that the player known for his goodness has actually drawn a more visceral reaction than those players who are at their core, truly bad.


“I don’t want any part of him or the circus,” one AFC front office executive told Yahoo! Sports’ Michael Silver recently. “At some point as a team, don’t you have to be concerned with what comes with him? The guy has never met a microphone he didn’t like and he’s obviously got a message. I think he needs to go away and hide for awhile.”


The first round of the NFL draft comes Thursday evening and the most compelling prospect might not be selected until the second night. Still a debate rages about Tebow never for any player before: about his game, about his life and about his religion. Last month a SI.com writer authored a personal blog post entitled “I Want Tim Tebow to Fail” and none of the story was about Tebow’s sidearm delivery or his still-developing footwork but rather his evangelical Christianity and the mission of his father Bob Tebow’s evangelistic ministry in the Philippines which boasts fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible.


It is hardly the only such opinion floating around about the quarterback. In fact, most thoughts on him tend to the extreme.


“The way his fans talk about him is almost idolatry,” says Tom Krattenmaker, the author of Onward Christian Athletes, a study of players’ self expressions of religion. “I’ve never seen so much intensity, pro and con, of any Christian athlete ever. There is a tendency for those who admire players who are devoted to their faith to place them on a pedestal but this [adulation] is on steroids. It’s been super-hyped to a higher degree.”

Look, I can understand if a team sees something as a distraction. But they aren't phrasing it as a distraction, or concern. They use words like: "circus", "visceral", "message [pejoratively]", "fail", "idolatry", "adulation on steroids". Really? Are we really concerned about this? Look at Ben Roethlisberger's latest escapes. Is that the "circus" teams should desire? Or how about Michael Vick?

So I pose the question. What if a team, like Pittsburgh with their Roethlisberger and Holmes problems of late, decided to send a message by drafting Tebow? What if Pittsburgh, trades Ben Roethlisberger to a team below them, for an extra pick, and draft Tebow at the 18 spot? It would give them a good first round pick, plus Tebow, and they would be rid of "Big Ben." Sure, it is unlikely. But what a statement that would make.

I wish I was a General Manager to do things like that. We are talking the business of guesses anyways. I mean, look at the Detroit Lions, they throw away draft picks every year. I would love to be a general manager and send a message that athletes are role models and we need to hold them to that.

It will be interesting to see who takes Tebow. Word on the street it is Jacksonville, hoping to capitalize on the Florida connection. He also seems to fit that "system." But wouldn't it be nice if someone made a statement? Unfortunately money rules the game, and owners are less worried about stars getting in trouble, eg Roethlisberger, and more worried about revenue.

Just found this:
Tebow to Steelers - No Joke!