The mystery of Tim Tebow's appeal

The Tim Tebow phenomenon has caused me to scratch my head so often, I've actually carved out a tiny road in my hairline. I used to have a free-flowing mane.

In my many years of covering sports, I have never seen such a marginally talented athlete so overhyped. With Tebow routinely falling to his feet on a playing field, the sporting public has fallen to its feet.

The ESPN poll this week revealed the Broncos' QB to be America's favorite active pro athlete. Only 11 athletes total, in the 18 years of this poll, have reached No. 1 status and most of them were in the stratosphere of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Tiger Woods.

On the heels of that poll, ESPN did an hour midday special on Tebowmania Thursday as a prelude to Denver's AFC playoff game against New England, which took place Saturday night. Tebow's jersey is the No. 2 current best seller in America, a couple of sleeves behind Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.

Now I'm not going to go all Charles Barkley on you here - last week on my radio show, Barkley said in reference to Tebow that "the national nightmare continues," prompting an inquiry to me for a comment from something called the Christian Post - but isn't this hype a bit ridiculous? I mean, the same ESPN was skewered for years by sports fans worldwide for overhyping Brett Favre - who, by the way, is a Hall of Famer. And now they worship Tim Tebow?

Just what is it that has made this kid connect with the American public? It's time to put the issue through the Missanelli Analysis Machine.

1. We are sick of the renegade jock. In a world where football players quit on their teammates in the huddle, then rip them anonymously after the game, or take guns into nightclubs and make it rain in stripper joints, or ply themselves with performance-enhancing drugs, Tebow has carved out a persona of everything that's good and right with the sports world.

He's a clean-cut, polite, appreciative kid who honors his Christian faith. He's the boy you want your daughter to date.

On that note, another national poll revealed that 43 percent of Americans believe Tebow's success is a product of divine intervention. Christians have been waiting on Tim . . . er . . . Him for a long time.

2. The expert factor. All who follow sports think they know sports just as well as people who work in the field. It's why we think we can lounge on the sectional with a dish full of pepperoni and still call a better offensive game than Andy Reid. Therefore, fans just love it when a case can be made for the experts to be wrong.

The majority of scouts, draftniks, general managers, and coaches never thought Tim Tebow would succeed as a quarterback in the NFL. (Heck, John Elway and John Fox weren't sure he could play.) Tebow shoved it right back in the faces of those experts by winning seven regular-season games, four of them with sensational comebacks, and then toppled the Steelers last week in the playoffs. And the fans loved it.

3. Tebow as leader. A Supreme Court justice once said that he couldn't define pornography, but he knew it when he saw it.

And I guess the same vague notion can be applied to Tim Tebow as a "winner." I don't know what it is he does, or how he does it, but Tebow does seem to have a natural talent for making his teammates believe and therefore can pull victories from the jaws of defeat.

Fans love that sort of thing. There is nothing better than a last-minute drive that wins a game. It defines greatness. More of that from Tebow remains to be seen, which leads me to my final point.

4. Talent. Here's what I've learned in following the NFL all these years: Not all quarterbacks succeed at a high level if they throw the ball well, but you must throw the ball well to have a chance to succeed at that high level.

Tim Tebow doesn't throw the ball well.

Quarterbacks must throw the deep pass. They have to zip the out pattern and the one in the middle of the field between two defenders.

Tebow can't do any of that; his completed big gains are passes he lofts when the middle of the field is somehow left open. On top of that, his completion ratio is below 50 percent.

And I hate to break it to the Tebow worshipers, but prior to last week's playoff win over the Steelers, and before Saturday's playoff game in New England, the kid was outclassed in the Broncos' last three games of the regular season because opposing defenses took away from him that silly triple-option set.

With analysis comes conclusion and here's mine: By the middle of next season, Tebowmania will be as outdated as the hotel pay phone.

Many Penn Staters have asked whether the hiring of Bill O'Brien is a good thing, and I give them all the same answer: I have no idea.

Once Penn State didn't get Urban Meyer, everything else was a crap shoot. I hope O'Brien, as an offensive guy, attracts better skill-position recruits.

In the last 15 years, Penn State's biggest NFL skill player star was Larry Johnson, who was a State College native. The biggest Penn State skill name in the NFL today is . . . Evan Royster? In the last few years, Penn State's most notable high school skill player recruit was wide receiver Derrick Williams, not on an NFL roster.

I got called last week by an Indianapolis sports radio station that wanted me to come on their show to give a scouting report on the Colts' newly hired general manager, Ryan Grigson, who apparently worked in the Eagles front office.

Since the Eagles operate in a vacuum, I wouldn't have known Ryan Grigson from Johnnie Lynn.

Let's presume that the Sixers are for real and they are capable of winning the NBA's Atlantic Division. If they do that, they'll get the third seed in the playoffs and will have to beat either the Boston Celtics or the New York Knicks in the first round. After that, they'll have to defeat the Chicago Bulls in the second round, without home-court advantage.

With all due respect to Doug Collins, I'm not seeing that, not with two-thirds of a frontline being Elton Brand and Spencer Hawes.