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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-61aba6ea-542b-c4ae-26e2-dca3d6d99aba"><span id="docs-internal-guid-61aba6ea-542b-c4ae-26e2-dca3d6d99aba">Tim Tebow is arguably the greatest player in UF history, but should he be judged by his former accolades forever?</span></span></p>

Tim Tebow is arguably the greatest player in UF history, but should he be judged by his former accolades forever?

A week ago, I wrote a column about how I think Tiger Woods is overrated, washed-up and doesn’t deserve nearly the amount of media coverage he receives.

But this column isn’t about Tiger. No, let’s make it bigger than that because it’s not only him who receives more attention than he deserves, I think we can all agree on that. Let’s look at some athletes who get way too much of the spotlight:

Oh man, I’m about to get crucified by the Gator faithful for this one. This is Gainesville suicide. Dare I say it? Dare I utter the name of a man who is the most perfect person, the most wonderful human being ever created, the best role model that one could think of? I love him to death, seriously, but Tim Tebow (gasp!) receives too much attention.

Okay, settle down you Florida fans. 

Listen, I adore Timmy Touchdown. I go to UF, and I grew up watching him at the helm of what were arguably the best four years of Gator football ever.  I idolized him, had his jersey, shook his hand at every Gator Walk I attended, and I understand that he is just overall the best type of person you could ever meet. I, of all people, know how great he once was.

Now, hear me out.

Not a lot of people outside of the Florida faithful really enjoy following his endeavors.

Since when do we care about the Double-A Minor League All-Star game and the fact that someone hit a double? But I guarantee if you watch ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports or follow any other sports medium (i.e. Bleacher Report), you know Tebow did just that. 

You don’t know about Jordan Romano, a New Hampshire pitcher who eviscerated batters with an MLB-ready 96 m.p.h. fastball, or Portland’s Matt Kent, who tossed a 47 m.p.h. eephus pitch (I mean, how do you even do that when you’re regularly throwing in the 80s?).

Again, I respect Tebow – I think he’s a winner through and through, and if I have 11 Tebows on a football team (or a baseball team for that matter), I’m going undefeated. I’m not saying cut all coverage of Timmy, not at all. He’s been on fire his last 10 games. I’m just saying let’s give equal coverage to the talent in the league alongside him.

It feels wrong to mention Tebow and Johnny Manziel in the same breath, but the former Texas A&M product is one of the most prominent cases of America caring way too much about an athlete that is simply second-rate.

If I polled 4,500 random sports fans and asked them to name one player in the Canadian Football League, I’d estimate over 95 percent would respond with Manziel.

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Thank God for Jeremiah Masoli.

Oh, wait, you don’t know who that is? Ha, that’s funny considering he’s the starting quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the same team Manziel is on.

If you’ve never heard of Masoli, look him up and you’ll quickly find he’s a stud. He’s second in the CFL in passing yards through four games. In his WORST yardage contest, he threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns – pretty damn good stats for a “worst” game. The former Oregon and Mississippi product is firmly entrenched in the starting quarterback position for Hamilton. 

Much like Tiger, Manziel is an awful role model and still dominates coverage for his league. I don’t ever want to hear Manziel’s name without hearing Masoli’s in the same sentence.

Finally, I really, really don’t care what Ronda Rousey does anymore. I pretty much lost respect for her after she showed a complete inability to deal with a loss. In sports, there’s winning and losing and, unless you’re Floyd Mayweather, you’re going to find yourself on the losing side at some point.

When Rousey’s vibrant flame was extinguished by Holly Holm in 2015, she embarrassed herself by never lighting it again. Yes, she attempted a return in 2016 but got filleted by Amanda Nunes in a bout that showed Rousey had no desire to even be in the Octagon.

Recently, it was announced that the fighter would be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Sensational, she deserves it. Seriously an awesome fighter and fun to watch.

But then she moved to the WWE, and my interest dissipated.

Do I really care what she does in the WWE? No, no I don’t. And you shouldn’t either because WWE has absolutely no relevance to actual sports. 

WWE is pretty interesting and a cool show, but just really has no significance in the sports world. It’s a production, not a sport.

Let’s focus more on the athletes today that really matter. Not the athletes of yesterday.

Chris O’Brien is a sports writer. Follow him on Twitter @THEChrisOB and contact him at cobrien@alligator.org.

Tim Tebow is arguably the greatest player in UF history, but should he be judged by his former accolades forever?

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