The Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos suffered a crushing 45-10 defeat Saturday night to the New England Patriots, ending their season. But the loss hasn’t ended the discussion about Tebow and his meteoric rise in popularity since being named the Broncos’ starting quarterback.
On ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked Washington Post columnist George Will why, despite Tebow’s positive attitude and charm, the openly Christian quarterback is such a polarizing figure in American culture?
“That’s a good question,” Will replied, “because when Hank Greenberg of the Tigers, Sandy Koufax and Sean Greene of the Dodgers — all three Jewish — missed extremely important late-season games because of observance of Yom Kippur, no one said this was exhibitionism and no one complained about it.
“They thought it was exemplary. As far as I could tell in every particular, Tim Tebow is an exemplary gentleman and maybe this is just the democratic, small ‘d,’ democratic nation’s itch to level people. It’s unattractive — the attacks on Tim Tebow — from whatever source.”
Will’s co-panelist, Cokie Roberts, compared Tebow’s open practice of Christianity to the naming of the New Orleans Saints, which didn’t face the same sort of backlash.
“I just want to say however that it is clear that God is not a Broncos fan,” Roberts said. “I think we have to make that clear. His team is the Saints. You know, as the archbishop said, when the Saints were named the Saints, he was asked if that was disrespectful. He just said, ‘No, but just remember that most saints are martyrs.’”
Watch:
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