Teeeeeeee-bowwwwwww! And the legend grows

It would appear that Tim Tebow is just one of those guys.

You know the kind, the fella who muddles along doing nothing of significance, a bit of a screw up, a guy who looks like he’s totally lost doing whatever it is he’s doing.

And then?

Then …

Yes that was him, again.

Pulling out a victory in the dying seconds of a close game, a game upon which he’d had little positive impact until the final drive.

The Denver Broncos quarterback is now 4-1 as a starter, he is routinely excoriated during the week for his failings, he kind of shrugs it all off, looks horrible for long stretches again and when it’s time to win, all he does is win.

We don’t get ‘em in sports too often but Tebow is proving that conventional thinking means very little when assessing his impact. And it’s great fun to watch.

His numbers generally stink (9-for-20 passing for 104 yards in total against the Jets on Thursday, two measly completions in an entire game – a win -- against Kansas City on Sunday) but there just seems to be something about his will, his strength of character, that allows him to have so much confidence in his abilities that you now half expect him to pull off some miracle every time he gets on the field.

So do his teammates, according to Von Miller, a defensive lineman who gets to stand on the sidelines and watch like the rest of us:

"No matter how many interceptions he throws, no matter how many touchdowns he scores, that's Tim Tebow and I'm going to ride with him to the end. I hope he shut up a whole bunch of critics today.”

Fun, isn’t it?

We want our sports stars – and that seems to be what Tebow is morphing into right before our eyes – to be part-mortal, part-superhuman. We like the Everyman aspect them and that’s what Tebow seems to be. He’s normal with gusts to bad until it’s time for drama and – most important – time to win. Then he wins.

You gotta love the guy for what he does on the field.

Oh, and to keep with a longstanding theme around these parts, the stats don’t matter a lick, do they? You look at his numbers and he should be on the bench, you look at what counts – winning – and he’s going to the Hall of Fame.

There is no advanced metric for heart. Thankfully.

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So, what’s this additional wild card mean for the TOD?

(That’s Team Of Destiny for newbies).

I concur with my learned colleague Griff who says, simply, nothing really.

It shouldn’t have any real impact on what GM Alex Anthopoulos does this winter to improve his team; he has to do whatever he thinks makes the most sense regardless of the number of post-season slots available.

I never really bought into the “we’re going to try to win in 2013 or 2014” stuff being spewed. You try to win every year and make the moves necessary to do that without regard for such things as wild cards. If there’s a good deal that makes sense, make it this winter, make it next spring, make it when it presents itself.

You can’t “plan” to contend, you try your level best to contend and win every time you step on the field or court or whatever.

It’s nice that there should be an additional playoff berth around next fall, it might stop some of the incessant whining and “woe is us” crap I hear from fans about the AL East.

But to the big shots? Can’t mean a thing.

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Weekend’s coming and so are two days of mail, which is good because it means I just have to react to stuff rather than search the dark recesses of the brain trying to create marginally interesting stuff for this spot each morning.

Go here, write words, send them in. Make my life a tad easier.

Thanks.

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You can’t seem to turn around thee days without seeing some ad for the big Twilight vampire thingy in theatres today.

Yawn. Can’t stand vampire things; haven’t read the books and don’t want to, haven’t seen the movies and don’t want to, don’t get the whole fascination and never will.

But …

I bet I’m the only guy you know who’s been to Forks, Washington.

Story time.

We’re on an otherwise outstanding vacation to Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria, Seattle a couple of years ago and Super Wife and Super Son – having read all the Twilight books and being all vampire-loving and all – decide we need to go see Forks since we’re going to be in Seattle.

Sure, sayeth I, figuring a quick trip over will allow me to leverage, oh, I dunno, maybe an afternoon at Kells, only one of the top three NBA saloons and a place I’d missed. How bad a drive could it be, right?

Anyway, off we go only to find out – and here where the problem comes – that Forks isn’t particularly close to Seattle. Or anywhere, actually.

Seems you go south out of the city, make a right, drive for, oh, six hours or so on a two-lane highway through a national park/forest/most-boring-place-on-the-earth kind of place. You get to the end of the world, drive about 45 more minutes and, presto!, there it is.

Um. Such that it is. You spend 45 minutes or so buying t-shirts and taking pictures and looking like the other foolish travellers who weren’t sure what they were getting into when the day began. Then you bundle yourself back in the car, drive back to the end of the Earth, take a ferry across some body of water (which we didn’t know about on the outbound trek) and, voila, after about 14 hours you’re back in Seattle. But you’ve been to Forks. Whoop-dee-damn-doo.

You can’t imagine how many points I got for going through that ordeal.

Blew ‘em inside a week, though.

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Oh, boy.

Fashion show today.

At least I think it’s a fashion show.

Got a nice invitation from the Jays this week to attend something on the field at the Rogers Centre and since it’s that time of year, there wasn’t any news to chat about, and they were going to change the uniforms anyway …

Gotta be, right?

Now, not sure I’ll be scribbling about – the inimitable Griff’s going to have that under control, I hope – but it’ll be fun to dissect the look sometime on the weekend from this rather, um, unique fashion perspective.

And, shockingly, I bet you can go buy your favourite jersey somewhere tomorrow.

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Just ‘cause (a) I miss Jack and Matt and (b) I heard it in a saloon yesterday.

 

Comments

[Lorie]

Doug!
You're going to a Fashion Show!!! How terrific! So, being A Man Of The World, you probably know this already, but it is de rigueur to adopt a certain style of dress and decorum when you attend this sort of event. Even if you're not seated front row with the likes of Local Fashion Celebs such as Jeanne Beker, you should wear predominately black, sport large sunglasses and a certain "I'm actually so bored with all this having just returned from Paris Fashion Week and been seated between Catherine Deneuve and Anna Wintour" look. Can you summon up such a demeanour? And this musical memory might help you a wee bit! Cheers! Sartorially Splendid (With A Side of Bored Sophistication) Ones Today!
http://youtu.be/39YUXIKrOFk

Blogger's note: If by "predominately black" you mean jeans and a sweater, I'm all over it.

[Rob.V]

Lorie, what a great way to start the morning. That guy/video... and people who are holding guitars (but it's quite clear have never actually picked up a guitar in their lives) is priceless!!
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The too sexy dude is the original "Derek Zoolander".
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... which got me thinking of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc1ECyCVMxA&NR=1

Derek Zoolander: Or are you here to tell me what a bad eugoogoolizer I am?
Matilda: A what?
Derek Zoolander: A eugoogoolizer... one who speaks at funerals.
[Matilda looks at Derek confused]
Derek Zoolander: Or did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogooly was?

[george]

Hi Doug,
There is one caveat to your dismissal of “we’re going to try to win in 2013 or 2014”. If you think you can win this year, you might take on some big-ugly contracts with old guys who might only help you for one year, instead of investing in trying to develop youg'uns.

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Geez, Doug, sounds like you work on the same points system as a few others of us. Ya tread so carefully to build them up (and you take them wherever you can get them), and then... WHAM! you're right back in deficit territory. Just have to keep our places, as the mostly silent Designated Sherpa and Part-Time Semi-Handy Guy, and hope for a Tebow outcome every now and then. Cheers!

[Jeff]

Jays fans are loving the new Wildcard spot now, but wait till we finish as the top wildcard team, and then lose in the play-in game. See what Jays fans are saying then. Especially if their record ends up being better than one of the Division winners...
.

[Mike D.]

Tebow is fun to watch....reminds me of Doug Flutie in that he just knows how to win. But those scrambles have me concerned about his NFL longevity; all he needs to do is overlook one LB steaming across from his blind side, and he'll be battling shoulder problems for the rest of his career.

[The J]

The AL east is still brutal. If Yankees take the top spot, Red Sox grab a wild-card, and Rays take the other where does that leave the Jays? Not to mention they play those tougher teams more often.

I always thought if they wanted to add wild card teams they shoud introduce a quick 3 game series. Last game of the season is on a Thursday, Playoff starts Friday, and done at the latest on Sunday. Meanwhile two teams are waiting on the other end with first-round byes, to play the next round on Monday. One team plays rested, the other rides some momentum. But no team has to live or die by one game where all it takes is one good or one off pitcher to decide an entire season.

[Boko]

How about a list of obvious tank jobs and how they worked out? Know it's against your nature, but, what the heck ...

[Kelsey]

Well for Toronto fans the next best luck maybe the Blue Jays. Wild card opening gives "hope" to Toronto and other baseball markets. If extremely tough in Toronto. Argo's are terrible, Raptors oh my Raptors NBA LOCK OUT>>NOT A STRIKE!!!
and the Leafs, fooling some early. Well maybe they make playoffs. I just cant stand watching the games specially at the ACC the crowd is like a grave yard!!!

So again Jays maybe the only hope for some fun!!!

Tebow is a great story with regardless to positive energy and will to win, Denver's offense is terrible, sick to watch. My personal opinion is that because his religous views and outspoken love for "Jesus Christ" certainly is making him a bigger deal. If he was Muslim and praying like a muslim, Im sure he wouldnt be so popular. Thats just my opinion and Im sticking to it!

[Kelsey]

sorry for grammar my infant son is looking some attention or maybe that diaper is full of u know what!!!