I know I risk upsetting many of you, but I can’t write this post without using the “F” word.
Football.
But the post really isn’t about football.
There’s a football player and a football game involved. But it’s not about football.
It’s more about other “F” words like “family,” and “fetus,” and “full-of-yourself.”
The biggest football game of the the year, The Superbowl, is this weekend. You can tell it’s the biggest game of the year by the word “super” in it’s name and by the fact that it’s watched by millions and millions of people, most of whom really have no interest in football and don’t watch any other time of the year. It’s what Christmas and Easter is for folks who otherwise don’t go to church.
Apparently former college football superstar Tim Tebow – I say former because of both the fact he has finished his final season at University of Florida1 and his poor showing in the senior bowl – apparently he is going to be starring in a Superbowl commercial2 by an anti-abortion group called Focus on Family. There is controversy surrounding the TV spot because the CBS network is breaking a non-political ad policy for the Superbowl by airing it.
I have a sort of unspoken non-political policy for this blog, too. I try to never push my politics on someone else, and unlike CBS, I’m going to stick to it. Besides, I have trouble focusing on the political side of it all because I can’t stop thinking about how Tebow is the very3 definition of self-righteous.
Outstanding athletes, right or wrong, are often deified. Tebow, in his years at Florida, was given the full-blown idol treatment. There was even the running joke that “Superman sleeps in Tim Tebow pajamas.”
Now, it seems Tebow is drinking hos own Kool-Aid.
The reason I say all this is because from what I hear is that the commercial features Tebow and his mother, who makes the point that if she had listened to others around her4 and had an abortion, then Tim would not be here today.
OK.
So there might have been a world without Tim Tebow. While I can understand how meaningful that possibility probably is to the Tebow family, it really doesn’t effect me.
What if there had been no Tim Tebow? There might not be a sophomore player to ever have won a Heisman trophy? The Gators might have had one less national championship? Old Man Potter would have taken control of the Savings and Loan?
Give me a break.
What is special enough about Tebow to make him the poster boy for anti-abortionists? 5 Tim Tebow is just a guy. Just like you and me. So, he may be a better football player than most of us. But, I’m sure there are things that we are all better at than Tebow. And we’ve had no less effect on mankind than he has.
So, where is my commercial? I wasn’t aborted. And I’m pretty damned sure that neither were any of you.
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