NFL: TEBOW, QUARTERBACK IDOLATRY & THE BRONCOS VS. THE CHARGERS // NFL, WHO’S UP, WHO’S DOWN, WHAT’S NEXT?

For more sports analysis go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510, and Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

            UNTIL AFTER THE CURRENT NFL SEASON, “SPORTS NOTEBOOK” WILL POST NEW EVERY MONDAY INSTEAD OF ON TUESDAY, continuing with a new post every Friday.  Editor, Marvin Leibstone. Comments to: mlresources1@aol.com

NFL   ---   IF a National Football League quarterback is at the losing end of a game, it won’t be his fault entirely, and if an NFL QB is on the winning side it won’t be all his doing either. Football failure and football success are always a team happening---applicable here is a quote from great baseball slugger, Babe Ruth:  "You can have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."  Yes, lots of QB’s have been better than others, making it easier for running backs and receivers to do their job, still it takes a team to win, and increasingly over the years it’s taken that half of a team that a QB has no control over, his franchise’s defense unit.

Today, the smart Denver Broncos fan is probably hoping, along with Denver’s head coach, John Fox, that Broncos starting QB, Tim Tebow, now 4-1, is immune to the idolatry that’s been surrounding him and to the unrealistic expectations that usually accompanies idolatry; furthermore, they’re likely hoping that Tebow is focusing upon one thing only: being the best QB that he can be this Sunday versus the San Diego Chargers, thinking less about his having a post-Sunday 5-1 record and more about the Broncos being 6-5 before nighttime on Sunday.

The Broncos need Tebow serving as super-catalyst for effective teamwork, in effect, Tebow getting rid of the football each play as fast as possible to those who can run with it and score, functioning “solo” when all other options disappear. 

But---some Broncos fans are wrongly convinced that alone Tebow’s about to lift NFL attack tactics to a next level, winning game after game for Denver. Unfortunately, this sends up the flag of idolatry, which isn’t the best banner for any athlete to be saluting and honoring. Meanwhile, other fans argue that Tebow’s a marginal football player, a hyped specimen destined to fail more than succeed.

Make no mistake, Tebow isn’t marginal, he’s above that and with promise. It’s that he’s been requiring the arrival of a narrow set of circumstances in order to lead assaults that result in touchdowns and field goals, and those circumstances aren’t easy to come by. Tebow hasn’t enough of that necessary wide range of skills that makes the truly outstanding QB---not yet!

As seen in all five of his starts, Tebow’s timing and his eye for actionable options needs improvement. Tebow’s passing accuracy needs betterment, too, which is why the Chargers defense will put extraordinary pressure on him in the pocket and go for the sack pronto, yet if unable to accomplish this the Chargers defense will likely force Tebow to pass by setting barriers that he won’t be able to penetrate, guessing that Tebow’s passing won’t connect well. If the Chargers can do this without leaving a hole for Tebow to do what he does so brilliantly, which is to rush through for a first down or TD, the Broncos will have a hard time putting up points.

In other words, Tebow upending the Chargers will depend primarily on Denver’s rush and pass protection and on receivers reaching the open spaces that enable successful handoffs or catches of even inaccurate throws.

Treating Tebow as if already an NFL legend defines silliness, it’s the same as saying a life has been well-lived before it can say “Hello, world” in babyspeak. Worse, idolatry in sports can create a shroud affecting even the most sincere and hardworking athlete. Such can lead to an athlete believing he must satisfy external expectations, causing him to try too hard, to sooner than later slide back and embrace mediocrity, causing himself, his team and his fans to be dispossessed of good dreams.

So, here’s a message for all of you Denver fans pushing Tebow idolatry: get real! It takes more than one season for a starting QB to ascend and find his true game, to sharpen his skills, to know the teammates that he has to rely upon most, and for those teammates to know, understand and adjust to his capabilities and limitations.

NFL  ---  BY the end of week 11 of the NFL season, the 16 NFL-National Conference franchises won 82 games, and the NFL-American conference’s 16 clubs won 72, which doesn’t mean that the NFL-NC is better than the NFL-AC when noted is that there are perhaps a dozen ways to determine differences between the two conferences and then decide which has primacy. For example, while the NFL-NC has won more games, the NFL-AC has fewer teams with least number of wins, e.g., the poorest record in the AC belongs to the Indianapolis Colts, 0-10, but the next lowest records in the AC belong to two teams with three wins each, the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars, while the NC has three bottom teams carrying but two wins apiece, the St. Louis Rams and the Carolina Panthers.

Also, the AC-West’s leading team, the 6-4 Oakland Raiders, is followed close by the 5-5 Denver Broncos, next by the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs, both at 4-6, implying that the AC owns the division with least disparity among its teams and hasn’t a team with less than four wins, while except for AC-North, all other divisions in both NFL conferences have teams at or below three wins. But the NC has the winningest teams, the 2011 Green Bay Packers, perfect so far at 11-0, and the San Francisco 49ers, 9-2, while, as of Sunday, three AC teams shared a best among 16 teams with their 7-3 record (Baltimore, New England and Houston, Baltimore now 8-3, having beaten the 49ers on Thanksgiving Day).

Another way to look at the NFL’s conference differential is to note that, as of Sunday, eight of the 16 NC teams were below .500, while six AC teams were below .500. This way of looking at the posssibility of primacy says that the NFL-NC is at the margin and could end up the losing conference (below .500) at the end of the regular NFL season, while the NFL-AC could be above the margin, thus the winning conference.

A safe conclusion here is that an observer can judge a conference from different categories in order to decide which is best. If number of wins is the favored vantage point to judge from, well, then, the NC bests the AC. If the fewest number of teams at or below .500 is a preferred main judgment factor, then it’s the AC that is best.

And, if last Sunday was week 16 instead of week 11 and the top two teams of each division in both conferences were to compete for a post-season victory, we’d see an NFL-NC with 55 games won by the top two teams of each of its divisions, vs. the NFL-AC’s total of 49 wins, suggesting NFL-NC primacy.

Then there’s the case for irrelevancy. Why, at week 12, care about anything other than which teams will be capable of competing for a conference championship and then Super Bowl entry? Experts seem to be going with the numbers right now, saying that 8-3 Baltimore and 7-3 New England or 7-3 Houston will compete for the AC championship, and that 11-0 Green Bay and 9-2 San Francisco will be vying for the NC championship. But football is what happens in spite of plans and predictions---in sports, numbers are always about the past, not the future, it’s still anyone’s guess as to which NFL conference is best and which franchise will dominate the next Super Bowl, which advises not to take any numbers too seriously until game time?

END/ml