Miami Heat's LeBron James says he can relate to Denver Broncos' Tim Tebow - ESPN

From ESPN:
Miami Heat's LeBron James says he can relate to Denver Broncos' Tim Tebow - ESPN:

Strange that the two best comments about the Tebow craze have come from Ben Roethlisberger and LeBron James. Players get it. Better late than never.

""I can relate to him a lot. I see how the media plays it sometimes and how the critics go at him," James said. "To see him prove them wrong ... he continues to stay positive and move forward. You respect that."

In August, James came to Tebow's defense on Twitter during Broncos training camp. When several analysts criticized Tebow on ESPN, James wrote: "Tim Tebow will succeed in the NFL. He's a hard worker, a student of the game, a natural born leader and most of all a WINNER! It takes time and he'll be nice.""

Roethlisberger's quotes before the Pittsburgh - Denver playoff game:

"I don't think Tim's really calling ESPN and asking them to talk about him," Roethlisberger said. "I would assume his teammates understand it. It's a tough thing. It's the position we play."

Interestingly enough, LeBron took a drubbing among fans and some in the media for his stance.


From somewhere in the Twittersphere:
http://tsminteractive.com/lebron-james-tim-tebow-twitter/

Citing James’ own inability to win a championship and the way he fell apart while playing for the Miami Heat against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals, Twitter’s version of the peanut gallery sprang into action.

A few examples:

ESPN’s Skip Bayless tweeted: “Can’t wait to talk about LeBron’s tweet about Tebow. If only LeBron could say that about himself …”

Chris Burke of SI.com tweeted: “Takes one to know … oh wait.”

And Fufu Pounder tweeted: “I wish I could say the same about U in 4Q.”

In a nutshell, without all the talk-show histrionics, here is the crux of the debate.

From YahooSports:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-silver_tim_tebow_broncos_steelers_suggs_elway010612

Earlier this week, Baltimore Ravens All-Pro pass rusher Terrell Suggs took some shots at Tebow on ESPN’s “First Take.” T-Sizzle expounded upon those thoughts during a phone conversation on Wednesday, saying he had nothing against the quarterback personally but felt that “he’s held to a different standard than the other 31 quarterbacks” in the NFL.

“I’m a Christian,” Suggs continued. “I have no problem with him being a Christian. But it’s like, you know, God forbid anybody say anything against Tim Tebow. Oh, we’re just giving him a hard time because he’s a Christian? No, that’s not it! We’re giving him a hard time because he went 6-and-22 for 60 yards!

“That’s terrible quarterbacking. Are you kidding me? Donovan McNabb had a game like that [early in the season] and got the hatchet. The hatchet! And we never heard from him again. And then Tim Tebow plays in a game where they need to win the AFC West, and he had a game like that, and we’re still talking about the Tim Tebow phenomenon?”

The MAJOR differences between the examples that Mr. Suggs cites are a) Tebow is WINNING despite his lousy stats and lousy mechanics, McNabb was not and b) Tebow is a YOUNG QB who is somewhat expected to have statistical ups and downs related to his youth and inexperience, McNabb was a VETERAN QB.

BIG DIFFERENCES THERE, CHIEF. But thanks for your insight.

When and if Tebow combine lousy stats with losing, Denver will pull the plug on him in a heartbeat or two. Rest assured about that my little Schadenfreuders. Until then, how about a healthy dose of STFU?