Christopher Polk-GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
To date, the Michigan Wolverines, who are 3-0 in their last three games against Notre Dame, have been careful not to disparage this season’s 3-0, 11th-ranked edition of the Fighting Irish. But much to my surprise, bulletin board material against Notre Dame has surfaced not from the Michigan players, but from “Mr. Christian” himself, none other than the one and only New York Jets GQ QB Tim Tebow!
It seems that Tebow was in Winter Park, Florida, over the summer, speaking to a prosperous pro-Gator crowd, and to say that Tebow was more outspoken than usual that day is an understatement, as the Jets understudy quarterback took an unexpected jab at former Denver teammate Brady Quinn and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
I had a teammate at Denver who played the same position as me and he went to the University of Notre Dame. He would brag about his university, how great it was. Most of us in the locker room were like, ‘C’mon, we all had opportunities. We chose not to go there.’ … But he talked so much about his university that it became easy. I’d say, ‘Your whole team had one guy who ran under a 5.0 40 [yard dash]. Our kicker ran under 5.0.’
Now, there is so much wrong with this feeble attempt at what passes for humor with Gator fans that it’s hard to know where to start. First, the average fifth-grader who follows college football knows that many (if not most) of the athletes admitted to Florida do not have the grades to get into Notre Dame. That is precisely the reason former Florida head coach Urban “Legend” Meyer forsook Notre Dame, which he once described as his dream job, for the greener (if dumber) pastures of Gator-ville, where he could recruit scholars and criminals alike, and thus win much quicker.
Still, the bigger problem with Tebow’s shady Brady Quinn quips is that they mock the one thing supposedly sacred to Tebow; Christianity itself. I have said it many times; you can’t separate faith from football at Notre Dame, since faith is in its very Name. It’s one thing when agnostics or the fallen-away faithful mock the school, but when a self-described Christian role model shows himself to be so tactless and clueless, it’s quite disconcerting.
Since I doubt Tebow would diss an Evangelical Christian university under the same circumstances, his defaming Notre Dame can only mean one of two things. Either he derides the Irish because he doesn’t think Catholics are true Christians — such as the Georgia Tech or Nebraska fans who insulted the Irish in the 1920s and 30s — or he doesn’t even know that Notre Dame is a Catholic university, a more likely scenario. Either way, Tebow is showing his ignorance, and if he wants his prayerful on-field posturing to be more than just an act, he’d better study a little history first. For when it comes to faith and football, Notre Dame was the first, “Tebowing” long before there WAS a Tebow. And the quicker he learns this, the better.
Word has it that Tebow, perhaps worried about his virginal image, has had his regrettable words taken off the Florida Gator Zone website. But if there’s anyone who should know that you can’t run away from your sins, it’s Tim. Tebow needs to apologize to the Notre Dame nation—but not until they play Michigan. For when it comes to inciting the ire of the Irish, the devil himself could not have done a better job.
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