I am also so very sick of wimpy you-hate-him-because-he’s-Christian, persecution-complex evangelicals who can’t figure out why most Americans, and even most Christian Americans aren’t fond of his “mystique”.  I’m a priest; do I need to post Bible passages on my person for my “Gameday” to be seen as faithful?  Is it possible that the haters hate regardless of his faith?

Really, the biggest reason that Tebow is a surprising success despite his incredible physical gifts is that he has been hampered by a college system that kept him from learning how to make the important multi-level reads of the pro game.  Tebow, like other “athletic” quarterbacks never really had to learn the fundamentals of his position because he could always manipulate the game to his advantage.  He is fast, strong, and immaginitive.  He is most successful when he can’t do what he’s supposed to do, so he gets to make it up.  This is the real gift for dual-threat quarterbacks is not simply that they can run and throw, but that they are more difficult to contain.

Making things up has been great for Tebow.  Now he even gets to do it every Sunday.  A player of his caliber should be doing that.  Again, the reason he wasn’t supposed to is simple: he never learned the fundamentals.  Yes, this means mechanics, but it also means making reads, recognizing the defense, and dealing with multiple receivers when only one is likely to get open.

This is the problem of the spread offense.  The spread isn’t the pinnacle of offensive game-planning.  It was designed to help less talented teams compete with bigger, stronger teams.  It allowed shorter, quicker players to be “isolated in space” to take advantage of their gifts.  When the spread was adopted by bigger programs, it allowed similarly talented players a certain advantage for half of a generation.  But suddenly, those stronger teams are looking a whole lot stronger, and the simplistic answer of “team speed” from a couple of years ago is looking pretty outdated.