The Curious Case of Tim Tebow

(Written by guest blogger Andrew)

Slowly but surely our world is forming more and more “battle lines:” Republican vs. Democrat, Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, Coke vs. Pepsi and now we can add one more--“Orton vs. Tebow.” It has been the most interesting story of the post-lockout NFL offseason with more ups and downs than your normal daytime soap opera.

And now on Sports Nut Theater... As The World Turns (in Denver)

This week in the “Mile High City,” a tale of two quarterbacks: one who has all of the personality of let’s say, a loaf of bread; the other the most damning “Love Him or Hate Him” athlete in perhaps sports history, of course I’m talking about Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow. Now in order to give this plot the rightful respect its due, well hold on, Sally! Allow me to fill in the blanks. 

Kyle Orton played his college ball at Purdue University where he had relative success, a Heisman hopeful, tying fellow Boilermaker Drew Brees’s record for most passing yards in a game, and other “so-so” accolades. Orton was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 4^th round of the 2005 NFL Draft. Now although Orton achieved relative success (his best season as a Bear was 9-6; the Bears missed the playoffs that year) and is “a nice little quarterback,” he was traded to the Denver Broncos and was believed to be Jay Cutler’s replacement. While playing two years in Denver, their record went from 8-7 to 3-10. 

(Now down south in Florida, another Quarterback was making a name for himself...)

Enter Tim Tebow! A highly recruited quarterback out of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Tebow was awarded an Athletic Scholarship to play for the University of Florida under coach Urban Meyer. He played for the Gators from 2006-2009, in which he had what many believe to be the most storied career in college football history. Now allow me to read you some of Tebow’s resume while as a member of the Florida Gators (want the full list? Go to Wikipedia):

*  Heisman Trophy winner - 2007

*  First-team Academic All-American - 2007

*  Associated Press SEC Offensive Player of the Year - 2007

*  BCS Championship - 2008

Now you would think with all of this that Tebow’s possible success wouldn’t be questioned, well you would be wrong. During the offseason leading up to the 2010 NFL Draft I believe I heard the words “bad throwing motion” in the thousands. Tebow became the most scrutinized draftee in the draft’s history; professionals had a field day with him predicting he would go anywhere from the 1^st overall pick to not going to be drafted at all. 

Tebow was selected to the chagrin of many in the first round of the 2010 draft to the Denver Broncos where he has been the subject of a “tidal wave of hate.” Everything in his life has been picked at with the rusted metal fork of the media, from his “horrible” throwing motion to the fact that he is a Christian. 

To which I respond…

I am in the growing minority of people who is actually a Tim Tebow supporter. And for full disclosure I am a God-fearing man, and I appreciate the fact that Tebow is as well, but I want to make it clear that is not the only reason why I support Tim Tebow. Call me old-fashioned but I actually like the way he plays ON THE FIELD! The thing that a lot of people aren’t realizing is that he hasn’t gotten the chance to prove himself; he has started a grand total of three games. Now do I believe that Tim Tebow is the next Tom Brady? No. But do I believe that in the right place he has the chance to win Super Bowl rings? Yes I do! What people have to realize is that he is not going to give you the “sexiest” numbers, but the one thing he does is he wins. You think he is not accurate? Go look at the tape from the National Championship Game where he tore apart my Oklahoma Sooners. The key is you have to actually have to let him PLAY! And now reports out of Denver say that Tebow could be THIRD STRING! BEHIND BRADY QUINN!  This is coming from the same organization that was willing to trade Kyle Orton three weeks ago so that Tebow could be the unquestioned starter. EARTH TO DENVER! Let Tebow play! Who knows? He might actually be good!

The Death Penalty: How We Learned to Fear the Bomb

I'd like to put a side-note in this while I still have the chance. Yahoo! Sports broke this story that I'm about to write about and they are currently investigating this scandal. Do I honestly trust Yahoo! Sports? Not really. The media can do anything to make or break something. However, sports news holders such as ESPN are picking up the ball and running with it. Basically, I can't be liable for making a mountain out of a molehill. I'm only a college student. Geez. Anyway...
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Have you ever gotten that thrill from doing something completely illegal? That illegal thing becomes so much fun that you just keep doing it until you get caught. Until then, you know that everything in life may just go hunky-dory until someone you know ends up getting caught doing something you weren't expecting. Then...

...enter the atomic bomb.

Possibly first casualty in NCAA Division I since 1987.

This "atomic bomb" could destroy a team, a school, a conference, and even a league. Something of this magnitude has not occurred in NCAA Division I in almost 25 years. The last time it happened, it wrecked more than just the team; this "atomic bomb" destroyed a Division I conference. You could call this the vicious cycle that we have been dealing with as of late in the case of college students, scholarships, agents, and salaries.
This casualty is known as the death penalty. It wasn't exactly known as the death penalty until the 1980's, but this term only describes so much about the punishments that are delivered with this sanction.

How did the bomb start?

Well, it sort of "started" way back in the 50's. The University of Kentucky's basketball team was in the midst of a gambling scandal, where players would take the money from bookies placing bets. Because of this, their season was canceled--and even worse--the players directly involved in the controversy were barred from playing in the NBA. Brutal, right? We're just getting started. In the 1970's, the University of Southwestern Louisiana was accused of many violations including forgery and academic fraud (that one is a big deal), resulting in their being barred during the 1973–74 and 1974–75 seasons. Yes, two seasons. Recently, Morehouse College's varsity collegiate soccer program was under fire for signing ineligible players that had played professionally for a brief time before enrolling. If you're wondering what happened to their team, they've been on probation for the past five years and only have an intramural team. A men's college tennis team at MacMurray College in the mid-2000's also conducted major infractions by obtaining scholarships from men from different countries. This resulted in a death penalty, shutting the tennis program down for two years.

Perhaps one of the biggest death penalty cases comes from Southern Methodist University in the mid-1980's. Now this is a heavy bag of worms. If you thought corruption was bad before, you'll see that it's absolute hell instead. Now, because SMU was a relatively small Division I school in the now defunct Southwest Conference (more on that later), the administration tried everything in their power to try to keep their athletics program healthy. Since their sneaky ways of "keeping healthy" was along the lines of breaking the rules, many violations were slapped on them between the mid-70's and mid-80's. After the NCAA found out about several issues including student payroll, the team was barred from bowl games and television appearances in 1985 and 1986.

But wait! It gets way juicier than this.

Ya rly.

So basically this is when the "you know what" hits the fan. A player was kicked off the team for substance abuse. This guy claimed that SMU paid him $25,000 to play with the team in 1983, and was paid monthly after that. After saying that, many officials denied the fact that it ever happened.
Let's start digging the hole, kids.
Lo and behold, after athletic scholarships were banned at SMU via petition in 1986, things got nastier. NCAA later found out that players were paid about $61,000 from a slush fund from a booster. But apparently, the slush fund went on for a while, as there were NFL players at that current time who were paid from that slush fund, and the school president (dead serious) paid those guys nearly $1 million to shut up about it.
Oh no no no, it gets even better.
The NCAA Infractions Committee began wondering what exactly they were going to do as far as penalizing SMU. At first, they were thinking about extending their already occurring probation for an additional four years for each infraction. However, they decided to go the path less traveled, leading to the unanimous vote of the cancellation of SMU's entire 1987 season and 1988 home games. This could have been much worse; since the penalties could have intensified immensely hadn't SMU been cooperative. I mean much worse as in a complete cancellation of the '88 season.

Because SMU was so deep in their own mess, they granted release to all of the SMU football players, allowing them to transfer to other teams (the SEC loved this) and formally canceled their 1988 season. Why did they do that? Easy--since the death penalty prevented all ways for SMU to recruit, award scholarships, have efficient coaching, practice, and do any more damage through boosters was completely eliminated.
In layman's terms, the SMU athletic program was basically in quarantine from NCAA Division I.

Since that time, there were bad reputations and violations that continued in that conference (not just from SMU), and the Southwest Conference was discontinued in 1996.
The end. Yaaaaaaaay.....not.
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Now here's our situation today.

There's this guy named Nevin Shapiro. He was a booster for the University of Miami for several years and was convicted of fraud and laundering from a Ponzi scheme from last year. He claimed that he has proof of financing donations to The U's football program between 2002-2010 totaling nearly $2 million among at least 70 players. Because the baseball program at the University of Miami has also been under fire for numerous violations, The U as a whole can be considered a repeat offender, making them capable of receiving the death penalty. Apparently after much talk by the NCAA, there's a chance that The U may go down with the ship.

However, due to the total damage it could do to a school financially, the NCAA is far from trigger-happy on this. If it destroyed a school and started a fire on a former Division I conference, it's a big deal.


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While The U is spiralling down into this vast amount of controversy, a lot of people are looking at the fact that they're not the only schools who have been under fire when it comes to the illegal practices of things such as "boosters" and agency among college student-athletes. Teams such as Ohio State and UNC have been under fire for various violations, leading to a lot of coaches/administrators stepping down. In a recession like this, everyone has a price. Students are looking for money for their talents earlier on, especially when it comes to the daily expenses of every day life.

As of reports on Friday, the concept of the "death penalty" is now being considered an option by the NCAA. And here's the thing: why shouldn't they at this point? They have evidence spanning over eight years, and with the additional elements against The U, the team, as well as the ACC, is in total jeopardy right now. What will this mean for the guys in Miami? No playing, no practices, no recruitment, no scholarships, and a loss of profit in games at their respective stadium as well as stadiums in rival schools. This is pretty much the same stuff that happened at Southern Methodist. However, this time will be more dangerous as money is about as important to life and growth as food and water at this point, and more schools will be at a loss this year. A death penalty could also destroy the student-athletes' chances of getting some sort of a "salary" or "stipend" for playing college sports.

Are the rules outdated? Some might say that now, especially with the painful loophole that NCAA schools are suffering through right now. The concept of paying players would be rather difficult, because it is illegal for the fact that college sports isn't a legitimate "career," and that the NCAA would have to find a way to pay every college player either on a sports scholarship or on a Division I, II, or III team. I don't think the NCAA, let alone the country, has the financial capacity to back that up. Because being paid is not exactly possible, the usage of boosters and underground agency is heating up and then there is the fear of continuing on without getting caught. The U went eight years without getting caught in some way, and now...there's a chance they're about ready to ruin the season and the additional perks of recruitment and practices.

Since there's this huge exposé on Miami, the stories about teams wanting to jump from the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) to the SEC (Southeast Conference) are running wild. Because a lot of team organizations saw what SMU's death penalty did to the SWC (Southwest Conference), they're ready to run at any second.
C'mon guys, it's not like we're preparing for a beached whale explosion here. (sorry animal lovers)
Why are we all moving so fast and jumping to conclusions? I'm about 75% sure that the NCAA will not impose the death penalty and just lay down heavier probation on the University's athletics program. Now if it were just the football team itself doing this for as long as SMU did and kept doing it time after time after probation after violation, then it would be absolutely necessary. For right now, let the negotiations continue.

Do you now see how afraid everyone is about that bomb? It's worse than The Blob, Galactus, and December 21, 2012 put together. Sorry, I trailed off there.

As for that bomb.... is it the red wire? Or is it the blue wire?
Only the head honchos of the NCAA can handle this.

--AZ

Red Whines: Pain Passes, Quitting is Forever

I thought there was no crying in baseball.

There always comes a time when a certain someone hits a rough patch in their life. Acknowledging that you have hit this "rough patch" is half the battle in something like this. (G-I-Joooooooooooe) However, there are those times when people are in denial of their struggles and then just give up because they are so depressed and ignorant toward a positive perception of streaks and slumps.

In a case like this, you must do either one of these choices: seek therapy, or have someone beat the crap out of you without any mercy because of the horrible decision they have made.

 The main reason why I'm writing about this is because last week, Carlos Zambrano [formerly] of the Chicago Cubs was ejected from a game against Atlanta after trying to hit Chipper Jones out of frustration for giving up a five home runs in an inning. After he went into the clubhouse, he threw a hissy fit, packed up, and told the trainers and people around the clubhouse that he quit and was leaving. Because of his outburst, the Cubs placed him on the disqualified list, which means that he will be suspended for 30 days without pay.


Now I've heard of people having slumps and giving up on themselves. This is different. It's either clear that he's in denial of having an anger problem or he's hitting a serious mental wall and just doesn't want to deal with any problems that he may possess. Honestly, there were a lot of baseball players that had a lot of mental problems while playing baseball and refused to quit. They might have taken time off, but they got better and returning to the grind made all the difference. Players such as Reds first baseman Joey Votto battled depression and anxiety issues during the 2009 season. Last year, he was voted National League MVP. Another baseball great was outfielder Jimmy Piersall; he had battled bipolar disorder through a decent amount of his career but retired with a .272 batting average. Although there were many personal issues between the two of these guys, "quit" wasn't in their vocabulary.
[Side Note: Piersall's book Fear Strikes Out is on my reading wishlist. Apparently the movie bended facts and stuff. Sorry, Anthony Perkins.]

A lot of people may be aware of the problems that Big Z may have been a part of in the past. Because of past performances, he has lost his position as a starting pitcher, therefore leading to a lot of meltdowns on the field and in the dugout. Usually when it comes to animated anger you can see from the television, you automatically know that something is up. At least I do. Don't they administer stuff like lithium to people like him? Despite the fact that guys can show a lot of passion toward the game especially when something doesn't go their way, you can only go so far with your outrages and meltdown sessions on the field or in the dugout. Does anybody remember outfielder Milton Bradley? He pretty much had the same problems as well. In playing for the majors for about ten years, he didn't stay with one team for very long. After outbursts against players, fans, and even broadcasters and interviewers, he's at home as a free agent. Although he wasn't exactly a "quitter" per se, his negative attitude certainly didn't get him anywhere.

A major concern for me is, "Why are the Cubs going through this crap when they can just release him or just put him away for the season?" Because the Cubs organization has been trudging through all of this stuff about him for almost two years now, it might be best for the organization or for Zambrano to use the axe. If they can do it now, it would give both ends a new start and some time to regroup. A lot of sources are suggesting the option to reduce his penalty, which I disagree with. These 30 days should be a rebuilding time for Big Z, and cutting off that time would be absolutely ridiculous and might not be enough time for him to burn off some steam. Heck, he could even go through therapy at that time if he so chooses.

If the Cubs do release him after the 30 days or buy out his contract at the end of the regular season, the last thing I would want to see is Carlos retiring altogether. Do you know that saying that "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade?" A lot of people still stay in the business without flipping out and quitting altogether. Does anybody remember Rick Ankiel of the Washington Nationals as a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals? I kind of don't, but follow me here. Apparently he was a good hitting pitcher. After injury and inability to regain pitch control, he almost quit. However, he just moved back about 200 feet or so to center field. Career saved.

In Zambrano's case, he is also a very good hitting pitcher--not to mention a switch-hitting pitcher. Why can't he just move to another position? When there's an extra-inning game and pitchers have to play the field, they're normally placed in the outfield because of their ability to have a strong, accurate (and did I mention fast?) delivery toward any base. Also, being released by the Cubs organization could really be the thing he needs to get back on his feet and have a more positive attitude toward himself and other people.
I think it's time to wake up and smell the coffee, dude. Find yourself something to fall back on if you'd like to remain a "Cub for life" or want to keep your career, Carlos.

--AZ

AZ's Slant on Sunday -- I Love LA, but for Football...?

As a lot of you might know, there are three big keys to marketing a home: location, location, and location.

There's obviously a lot of people in LA, you know. Even in the projects.

There has been a large amount of speculation that started in the beginning of the month that the next NFL relocation will be hitting the Los Angeles area. Some of the teams that may be in danger of relocation (as far as I know) have been Buffalo, Jacksonville, and Carolina among others. Because California could probably qualify as it's own country at this point, they have a strong chance for being the next possible NFL team within the next five years.


I know we're looking hard into the future, but after the approval of a football stadium being built in the City of Angels, you have to start asking questions and having opinions about these things. Am I at least right about that part?

Oh hey look...it's Randy Newman playing for us while you read this blog post!

 Here's right here, goofy.

As far as the population density goes, this fits relatively well for the state. The largest metropolitan area in California is in fact the Greater Los Angeles area. That means it's so big, they have three basketball teams (2 NBA, 1 WNBA), a hockey team, a soccer team, and one and a half baseball teams--the half being the annexation of the Angels from Anaheim. I guess if they want to complete the plating of the major sports teams, they need a football team.

Los Angeles is the second largest media market in the United States. However, they are the largest without an NFL team. That wasn't the case about 15 years back, as the Raiders and Rams danced around there until they landed in Oakland and St. Louis, respectively. Since then, LA has been very determined in gaining stature back in the league by acquiring another team. There have been several repercussions over the years though, and at the rate they are going, this is the closest they have been to gaining a new team. Before this, the closest they were was in 1999 when the Houston Texans happened. Since then, there has been talks of a revival of the USFL among other constructions of buildings and arenas for football. So far, about 90% of those talks have fallen through. The thing that makes me scratch my head the most is where all of the money for this is coming from, especially in a recession like this. I hope Arnold isn't digging into is Terminator earnings fund just to save face.

However, is it absolutely necessary for a large metropolitan area to have at least seven or eight major teams? When did cities become so separated with this stuff? It's like sports have begun to have secret affairs with our political system or something. I come from a metropolitan area myself, so I sort of understand why teams may be so clumped around one particular region. Cities can be so big that they do have sections along the lines of a North and South. Think of the New York Jets and the New York Giants for a second. With Buffalo aside, you have all of the sections of the New York metro area, plus the state of New Jersey swimming around in there whenever it pleases. There's enough of a fanbase out there that they can keep a team. Plus, they play in New Jersey anyway, but that's beside the point. Sometimes areas are so big, they can get away with having more than one team in a sports league. However, there are those times when a whole state only has the capacity to have a team for the rest of the state or states like the Tennessee Titans or the New England Patriots. Then you have the people in the dead zones that are forced to root for out-of-state teams, like people in the Dakotas, for instance.

I myself am not too keen on having an established team relocate to an area that can be considered a sports juggernaut of a state, but if there are the people out there to support it, there isn't much one can do but to wait and see what comes out of it. Just look at what happened when Winnipeg got another NHL team recently; sure, the people in Atlanta who were Thrashers fans (or lack thereof) may have been crushed by it, but the team was relocated to an area that bled hockey and really benefited from this. It could go either way; we don't quite know just yet how beneficial it will be to the gainer and the loser.

Some people do fear change, but oh well.

Without question, this is going to fuel rivalries between LA, the Raiders, and the Rams, so that would obviously be something fun to see. However, there's going to be fumbling with the divisions again, so there's a chance that teams will have to get ready to face adjusted divisions and new rivalries. Does everybody win all around on that one? You see, I was too young when all of the teams had the heavy amounts of relocation and renaming in the 90's; you can't hold that against me. Something like this to people like me are a bit of a culture shock. Once you're used to one thing, it's hard to see it re-branded or changed. But if it's for the people (not so much for the money) I'm okay with it.

There is one final thing I do want to ask: Despite the CFL existing in Canada, why did they shop around in Los Angeles before any other major city in Canada like Toronto? The NFL is wildly popular up north, and you would think they would extend the boundaries to get more people involved with the league and to gain a bigger and wealthier unit of fans and benefactors. I guess I'm asking the question that's too obvious for answering. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Is the NFL in Los Angeles 2016 bound? Most likely. At this point, it's not going to stop for anybody.

--AZ

FOOTBALL LIVES

Oh hey...the first NFL preseason games are tonight.

With more screaming fangirls than Beatlemania, it's the 2011 NFL Season: Risen from the Ashes!!

Yeaaaahh 70's montage background music...

In all seriousness, this is going to be the best season of football since...well, forever. Why is that you ask? What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Since the NFL survived a lockout and the rest of us survived all of the coverage along with all of the people pulling their hair out wondering if there were going to be any games played, it's as if the football world is ready for...you know, the world. Lucky for all of the football fans out there, the Hall of Fame game was the only "casualty" of the lockout, and everyone managed to have decent sized training camp sessions and have more than enough time to trade and make transactions with draft picks.

When it comes to trades and draft picks, it doesn't seem like there was any rush or time lost, even with the wait for free agent eligibility. In all honesty, I think that the lockout was a perfect time to devise trades under the covers. Sure, it might have been more stressful in some ways, but I'm pretty sure with the lack of communication between coaches and the media with a few things, it allowed the big corporate guys to focus more on the prize in case if football came back. C'mon, let's be honest, I think they purposely kept us on edge so they could be sneaky and think about team matters without us bothering them. But that's besides the point.

So anyway, the lockout business...

Every time there has been a lockout, it seemed like every sports league had gotten stronger and a lot more efficient after that. That, or maybe that it was the rush and novelty of something coming back after a near-catastrophic issue. The last lockout I can fully remember was the NHL lockout in 2004-2005, and the season it came back, it was like everyone in the United States and Canada was about hockey to some degree.

For some reason, I feel like the NFL lockout is so much bigger than this.
Firstly, nobody ever had to go through a season without football (meaning this NFL lockout was the first of it's kind ever), and something like this would have resulted in an absolute culture shock to everybody. We probably would have seen grown men cry than guys watching Brian's Song or something. Even though there are a whole bunch of new and revised rules, people are glad they can save their tears for something else more important.

The one rule that are probably going to drive people nuts is that more plays are going to be under review than usual.  This means that less challenges will be used and more waiting is imposed. Good times, right? There are also a lot of nitpicking when it comes to defenseless players and the approach of tackles and other clashes during plays on the field. For example, things such as some forms of "launching" oneself against a player could result in a penalty and/or fine.

Since when have we gotten so nitpicky? Yeah, I know they're more prone to injury nowadays, like how they pull a hammy once they step out of the shower or get a contusion once they get hit with a towel from the locker room. I'm just kidding with that. But really, they're getting so many more injuries now than they did 30 years ago. I don't know why it's like that. Maybe some sports scientist can chime in on this blog someday and explain to me why that is. Anywho, it's irritating to someone like me who just started taking football seriously and still sees injury despite efficient padding on the players. Darned physics and gravity and stuff. You like to make people so difficult to work with.

Aside from everything I've complained about, this football season seems a lot more organized and a lot more reliably handled than before. Also, things just seem so much more exciting now that football season is coming around again despite fear of a shortened season or no season at all. I never thought I would say that, but it's true; I'm glad to see it back.


Time to bring out the facepaint, beads, cheese puffs, beer, and the imprinted man chair.
Are you ready for some football?

--AZ

PLUS, I also joined a fantasy football league. You will see a log/diary on my Tumblr. account (sportsnutblogs.tumblr.com) with posts on how badly I'm doing. There's a first time for everything, right? I hope to see some fans of the Carebear-Sacking Squad once this season is over. :-)