I walked in to a radio station focused on doing an interview totally unrelated to football and the producer starts ranting about how much he hates Tim Tebow. This was a day after Tebow once again brought his Broncos to victory. So I asked why he hates him so much. He really couldn’t articulate a reason. I pushed. Still no answer.
Is it because he is a good guy and has faith in God? No answer.
So you would prefer a Brett Favre who takes pictures of his body parts and emails them to women, or a Michael Vick who bank rolled dog fights? Or Tom Brady who has babies out of wedlock?
Apparently, it is no big deal when a player in the NFL is a bad boy. We’ve come to expect this according to Jeff Benedict who wrote a column for SI.com last year. He and his research assistant, Jeff Gasser, tracked public arrests of pro and college athletes from January 1, 2010 to August 31, 2010. In this eight month span, they found 125 reported arrests, more than one every other day. And that figure did not count minor arrests!
Back to Tebow, who so far, doesn’t have an arrest record, but has a I HATE TIM TEBOW Facebook page.
When Detroit Lions’ Stephen Tulloch and Tony Scheffler fell to their knees and mocked Tebow a few weeks ago (“Tebowing”), no one was too upset. But imagine if those two player did the same to a Muslim player who bowed to Mecca. There would be complete outrage. And there should be. Instead of mocking religious faith, we should be glad people embrace it. Religious faith usually helps people live better lives.
So why are people full of hate, want Tebow to fail and insist on making fun of him? Here are my thoughts:
1) People who enjoy seeing others fail usually attack others to feel good about themselves. Healthy people take joy in the success of others.
2) People are jealous and incredibly insecure.
3) Tebow raises the standard and makes others uncomfortable.
4) People are intolerant. They don’t agree with his pro-life stance and belief in Jesus.
5) American media has no problems making fun of Christians. There are few repercussions for this rude and insensitive behavior.
5) People are judgmental. If Tebow’s beliefs don’t match theirs, they go on the attack.
6) Misery loves company.
7) By debasing another, haters enhance their self-image
8) Haters do not have to look inward -they are too busy focusing on others.
9) Tebow acknowledges his dependency on God. We prefer self-sufficiency and humanism to win the day.
10) St. Paul reminds us that to those who are lost, the Gospel offends.
Your thoughts?
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