Why Do I Even Bother Reading This Stuff?

Tim Tebow has asked the NFL Advisory Committee to project where he'd be selected in the 2009 draft if he were to leave Florida after his junior season. This is a hot topic for many people because

• he is a QB
• he plays in a collegiate offense that doesn't translate to the NFL
• he has a year of eligibility left

You have people from Florida defending his talents (of which there are many) and yearning for him to return, you have the draft connoisseurs attempting to evaluate his stock, and you have those that hate him because he is everything they want to be.

The ridiculousness that is web site comments is hard to swallow. I'm sure you've read comments on YouTube videos and fully understand this. ESPN has been doing article comments for ~2 years now and they are just as ridiculous as those found elsewhere around the web. You have people claiming things that are downright stupid; you have those that just try to pick a fight; you have many that will defend their teams and players from their teams no matter their performance on (and off) the field. The list goes on.

At the bottom of this article you can see the THOUSANDS of comments people had regarding Tebow looking into his draft stock. I don't know why I chose to read the first 50 but I wish I hadn't; in fact I wish I'd never read comments ANYWHERE. The utter ignorance and stupidity that most commenter's leave is pathetic. I have grabbed 2 of the first 50 comments on the article and would like a chance to explain why they make no sense.


OK so first the 'jonnyc2289' remark. Late second round is feasible for Tim Tebow just because of his skills and the fact that he'd make any coach look like a genius were he able to transition Tebow into the NFL game (because he is definitely not ready for it). What I don't get from 'jonnyc' is the Dolphins thing? Why on Earth would Miami take him? This is just an example of blind ignorance. 'jonnyc' obviously has no clue as to the state of the Dolphins this season. They have a veteran in the midst of the best season of his career and two 2nd round draft picks waiting in the wings. Chad Henne was chosen by the current regime as the QB of the future. He proved in preseason and training camp that, with a little time, he can be at least an adequate NFL QB. 'jonnyc' apparently just eats up what the talking heads say and take it as truth... like they all said Miami wouldn't win more than 4 games this season.

Now to beastMODE41487. Seriously? One of the most dominant players to ever play college football? Come on, it's a bit early for that. Sure he's won a Heisman and has a National Championship under his belt. But he also wasn't the starter when they won it. He most certainly COULD be one of the best ever at the college level but he MUST win the title this year, as the starter, AND come back next season and have another great year. The "best player ever" stuff gets thrown around way too often. I'd be willing to argue that there are at least 50 past collegiate players that were more dominant than Tebow up until this moment.

And the last part about ESPN... the article was just that, an article. I occasionally get pissed at ESPNs bias on certain subjects but the article didn't project anything at all. There was no "insight" given, other than simply stating

Most NFL analysts do not believe Tebow will be a high pick in the draft, regardless of when he comes out, because he's not considered a prototypical NFL passer. ESPN's Todd McShay, director of college football scouting for Scouts Inc., said recently that he doesn't believe Tebow will be drafted in either the first or second round if he leaves Florida.

McShay says that, not ESPN. ESPN hasn't run a story on how Tebow would be a middle round draft pick and are denouncing his throwing mechanics. McShat, an ESPN employee through Scouts Inc., believes so. If you have a problem with that part of the article your beef is with McShay, not ESPN.

My take on Tim Tebow is this: he is a very gifted, young athlete, as well as a high character guy. He will be drafted. As a QB? Maybe. He just doesn't have the elite speed or proper throwing mechanics to be a dominant NFL QB. His attitude is a breath of fresh air in the, quite frankly, putrid smell the professional sports leagues are casting nowadays. But Tim Tebow is not a 1st or 2nd round pick. Period. He is a project and you don't draft guys in the 1st and 2nd round that based on skills that worked at the collegiate level. As of now, if he declared, I see him going in rounds three or four.