Leadership. Competitive Fire. Dickwaddery.

Thanks, gatorzone.com. Now I destroy your false idol.

Let me preface this post with two valid and important points. One: I apologize to the world that I have not posted in ages. I know you've missed me ever so much. Two: Tim Tebow is one of the greatest collegiate football players of his generation. He's also, from all that's been printed about him, a fine young man.

Tim Tebow is also a grade-A dickwad.

"How can you say this?" come the cries from all corners of the media / Florida trailer parks. "Tebow is a saint! From stone was his visage built, into steel his words have been etched, and daggummit, the kid's got a heart of gold!"

Well, the guy sure isn't nice to his teammates. If you've watched ESPN in the past 24 hours, you have seen a replay of Florida's 23-13 victory over Tennessee on Saturday. Sure, everyone debated over whether the win was big enough for the Gators, favored by 30 in the Swamp (side note: the amount of hate spewed from the stands at Lane Kiffin and his Volunteer team in this game was palpable. People in the Big 12 who say Mizzou fans are bad should go to one SEC rivalry game and try to say it afterward. I dare them). But I think the real story came from a play early in the second quarter. Tied at 3-3 and inside the red zone, Tim Tebow saw all his Gator receivers covered (he thought)... so he called his own number and ran naked bootleg to his right. There were three Volunteers waiting at the end of his run, and Timmy leveled one of them, Refrigerator Perry style, before going down. End of play, positive yardage, no sweat for a running QB. Right?

Oh, wait. There's Tebow during the next timeout emasculating his entire offensive line for letting three white shirts tackle him at once. Looks like he's using words his Christian family never taught him. He's got enough red in his face to look like a giant pimple. He looks like Gordon Gekko on Black Monday after a coke binge the night before... sans the sweet hair. If you don't believe me, watch the play yourself. (Ed. note: As much as I don't want to link there... it's the first highlight on the reel.)

Pundits have praised this type of behavior from #15 before. "He's a natural-born leader! You've GOT to love the intensity he brings to the foot-ball game!" I heard one tonight that simply took the cake, though. "THAT'S the type of guy you want to play with!"

Really? If I was an offensive lineman, would I really want a man who some people in the South revere as a demi-god asking me who I didn't block on a busted play? Because when the cameras see it - like they did on Saturday - I will never, ever be right. Never mind the entire play call pulled to the offense's left, never mind that Tennessee had some excellent downfield coverage, and never mind that Tebow had motion receiver Jeffrey Demps open in the flat for a short gain, or at least no loss on a busted play.

Never mind any of those facts, because they will always be wrong. What Tim Tebow does is universally right in the press and in the eyes of the football fan, because Tim Tebow almost wasn't born, does missionary work, etc. His word is inviolate.

What real leader faults his followers when he decides to act on his own? I'm sorry, but you can't throw your O-line under the bus for following the play in the playbook. None of them have heads on a swivel to see Tebow's change of direction behind the play, and for all we know (the TV shot didn't show too much), Tennessee was playing numbers on the strong side. Florida tried a WR overload on the short side of the field, had everything snuffed out by great red zone defense, and then Tebow looks like a Tex Avery cartoon on the sideline because no big galoot was there to block for him?

If it were anyone else on Florida treating fellow players like crap after that same play, I think Urban Meyer might dig back to some Mormon roots and bench that kid's butt for as long as he saw fit. He would get it into his skull that this was a team game, and we do not treat our teammates and brothers-in-arms like that. There is no room for that kind of disrespect on a championship team.

Seriously, would anyone be at all surprised if we found out, once Tebow turns pro, that he treated his teammates like garbage on a regular basis? That nobody spoke out for fear of external pressures (AKA "Tebow-lovers") ending in their getting benched or cut? That practice was a nightmare at the hands of a taskmaster who is given free reign because his coach knows he's ridden the kid to two championships? Now that the "fire and brimstone" has been seen on a national stage, in an instance it should never have been employed, I would be shocked if we didn't hear stuff like this someday.

I seriously hope when Tebow goes pro, he acts like this at his first training camp. It would preferably be for a team that has already anointed him a starter, or drafted him in the hopes he becomes a core piece of the franchise.  If all this falls into place, 20 bucks says Tebow goes into a no-contact scrimmage with strong words for a wideout, and leaves with a black eye.

That's what real-world dickwads end up with once in a while. Here's hoping Tim Tebow can have the pleasure of the same experience if he doesn't treat his mates with a bit more respect.

Always a saint,

~Matt