How Tim Tebow is really the NFL player who was blackballed for his beliefs

Photo Credit: Deseret News

People are quick to say that Colin Kaepernick not having a job in the NFL is a result of the fact that he began the United States national anthem protests in last year’s preseason. These people are essentially claiming that he was blackballed.

But if any player was blackballed, it was Tim Tebow. Tebow had 29 total regular season touchdowns and started 16 career regular season games while rushing for 989 yards, which is good even for most running backs…and he was a quarterback.

Just to put 29 touchdowns into perspective, last season (16 games), just six quarterbacks totaled more than 29 touchdown and just three more totaled exactly 29. The six that exceeded 29 touchdowns were Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Andrew Luck and Ben Roethlisberger, and the three that totaled exactly 29 touchdowns were Jameis Winston, Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott.

Of those quarterbacks, the one with the closest total to Tebow’s total of 989 rushing yards was Aaron Rodgers, who rushed for 369 yards. Overall, the quarterback with the closest total to his total of 989 rushing yards was Tyrod Taylor, who recorded 580 yards on the ground.

So if people want to complain about Colin Kaepernick, whose record as a starter last season was 1-10, not having a job in the NFL, why don’t they complain about Tebow not having a job in the NFL?

 

This goes back to the hypocrisy of the NFL. This whole “Freedom of Speech” argument means one thing: freedom of speech only when it suits a particular agenda. That is clear in this particular case.

When Tim Tebow knelt in prayer on the sideline during his NFL career, he was not publicly praised. Instead, he was publicly scorned despite the fact that his religion is between him and God and nobody else, no matter who you are. It has absolutely no disrespectful connotation to it whatsoever, again, no matter who you are.

Kneeling for the national anthem on the other hand? That has a very disrespectful connotation. Yet these players, who refuse to stand for the anthem because they feel like they have been “attacked”, are seen as role models.

Yet they are the ones still in the NFL, while Tim Tebow, who is better than plenty of starting quarterbacks in the league today, is not. Yet somehow Colin Kaepernick, who is the only one if not one of an extremely small number of national anthem protesters who is actually no longer in the NFL, is perceived to have been blackballed.

Yeah, because that somehow makes sense.

 

-Asher Fair