President Obama only invites with world champion sports teams like the Yankees to the White House. You have wonder, though, if there’s a special trip in store just for Tim Tebow.
After all, Tebow is showing up everywhere else these days, dominating the news cycle in a way that any politician would envy. Heck, VP Joe Biden could use an immediate lesson from the higher-plane quarterback.
Biden needs to drop an F-bomb at a bill signing to get any type of run on air.
That’s hardly the case for the most talked about 25th pick in the history of the NFL draft — or any other draft for that matter. Tebow draws attention at the same rate that Ben Roethlisberger collects rape allegations. He flashes his youthful grin or a Bible with as much frequency as Big Ben flashes his junk.
Tebow’s draft party even became a huge story — and not for any of the Matt Leinart-like, typical quarterback reasons you might think.
First, Tebow’s party gets touted as the ultimate bold move — or act of faith. NFL draftniks marvel at his nerve for holding a party on the first night, when he wasn’t even supposed to be picked until Day 2. Then, Boston sports talk show host Fred Toettcher compares Tebow’s bash to “a Nazi rally”, saying it was “lily white.”
Next, Martha Stewart has Tebow on to give appetizer recipes.
No other football player — let alone one who isn’t likely to play for several years — causes this type of frenzy. Tebow is Tom Cruise in shoulder pads, a development that’s surely stinging the real Cruise.
Tebow even sounds like Cruise when he describes the mind meld he put on Broncos coach Josh McDaniels.
“There was passion,” Tebow gushes. “It was just intense, and it was ball and it was juice. The juice level in that room was high, and it was awesome.”
Of course it was, Tim.
These days, Cruise needs to jump up and down on a couch or turn Katie Holmes into a Stepford Wife to command the news. All Tebow has to do is invite a few friends to a very tame party.
The NFL dragged its draft into three days, and the mechanically-unsound Tebow seemed to always be in the shadow of the screen.
Imagine if Shane Battier somehow dominated the coverage of the NBA draft when he was selected in 2001, and you have a parallel. It’s just impossible to escape the Tebow vortex. One of the better NBA first-round series in years (Phoenix-Portland) went to a Game 5 last night. But who could watch … there were probably Tebow highlights on another channel … or 10.
– Chris Baldwin covers sports media for Metro.
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