As December begins, all four major professional sports angle for our attention. College football teams are wrapping up regular seasons, starting conference playoffs and securing bowl invitations. The NFL regular season is heading into its homestretch, and with five weeks to go, we’re starting to see potential playoff seedings for both the AFC and NFC. Now that America is in the season of shopping and giving, underachieving college and professional football teams are processing pink slips for coaches and dreaming towards better replacements and blue-chip draft picks for next season. The NBA lockout is presumably over, giving Americans one more thing to look forward to on December 25th. The NHL season is in full bloom, including a return to action by Sidney Crosby, healthy again for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Even Major League Baseball provides us reasons to look ahead to Spring Training, with a new labor deal extension, hot stove action, and the recent hiring of Bobby Valentine by the Boston Red Sox, bringing a new managerial energy.
I start today’s column on a rather odd note, and as the title of this column suggests, something seems amiss at ESPN. For those who don’t know, ESPN, the world’s largest sports cable network, is based in Bristol, Connecticut. However, if you watch enough of ESPN programming, you’d swear or at least wonder if ESPN’s thinking process is rooted south of the Mason-Dixon Line. No, I’m not talking about NASCAR and rednecks racing cars around tracks at breakneck speeds. I’m talking about ESPN employees openly pontificating from their Good Ol’ Dixie frame of reference. The ESPN employee? Skip Bayless, a former columnist with the Dallas Morning News, now a regular talking head panelist on ESPN’s First Take, seen Monday-Friday, 10:00am-12:00noon on ESPN2.
Bayless (AKA “The Bloviator” by fellow ESPN panelist Stephen A. Smith) has been a one-man pom-pom brigade for Denver Broncos “quarterback” Tim Tebow. I place the term “quarterback” in quotes because I frankly don’t believe Tebow has the physical build, upper-body mechanics, or the thinking intellect to be a starting quarterback running today’s sophisticated NFL offensive schemes. It’s a fairly simple assessment, one I’ve made in previous columns and still stand by: Tebow is too muscle-bound, too bulky and disproportioned in his muscle mass to throw a football with consistent effectiveness as a left-handed passer. It has nothing to do with passing from the pocket or on the run but has everything to do with how his arms and legs are coordinated in his passing motion. When your first mental instinct is to always tuck the ball under your arm and run like a halfback or fullback you will always look awkward trying to throw a football left-handed. This isn’t a debate about football philosophy; it’s a fact based on anatomy, physiology and physics.
If you don’t believe me, try imitating, physically or mentally, one of your favorite right-handed baseball pitchers, past or present, with really pronounced body mechanics and wind-up: Luis Tiant, Tom Seaver, Kent Tekulve, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden, Bronson Arroyo, or perhaps Mariano Rivera. Got a physical or mental feel for how these guys pitched a baseball? Now try doing it LEFT-HANDED. Let me know how many times you fall down or spin yourself dizzy into the ground. Better yet, now let’s think of some lefties with pronounced mechanics: Tug McGraw? Fernando Valenzuela? Johan Santana? Ever really watch how David Wells pitched years ago? How about observing C.C. Sabathia? Any chance a right-hander could imitate those left-handed motions?
Pitching a baseball and passing a football both work on similar mechanical principles. As a consequence of those principles, a successful left-handed quarterback’s motion generally has to be pass-first in orientation, even if he’s rolling out after taking the snap from center. Right-handed quarterbacks don’t have this same issue to battle, which is why they can still pass effectively when rolling to their opposite side. No matter which direction a right-handed quarterback rolls, he can throw a legitimate NFL-quality pass downfield. If a left-handed quarterback rolls to his right, he’s at a greater disadvantage because he has to physically adjust his body position, and arm angle, in order to throw — in other words, lefties don’t throw on the run well rolling to their opposite side.
Am I the first person to point out these things regarding Tim Tebow’s physical limitations as an NFL quarterback? No, although I might be the first to present the argument by integrating football, baseball and science. Tim Tebow has several critics, and we all making similar arguments.
But Tebow doesn’t have a supporter quite like Skip Bayless. To put it bluntly, Bayless is unabashed, nonobjective, and biased in his public support. At first I wondered if his support was simply to be the lone contrarian among the naysayers. Bayless has stated several times that he doesn’t believe Tebow will ever win a passing title or earn a Pro Bowl spot, but he firmly believes Tebow will ultimately lead the Denver Broncos to the playoffs and possibly a Super Bowl title. In other words, Bayless believes Tebow’s a winner and the Broncos will be winners with him leading them into battle. At the moment it’s hard to argue against Bayless’ predictions. The Broncos are 5-1 this season with Tebow the starting quarterback, and 6-3 going back to last season. This looks a lot better than the 4-14 record Kyle Orton (now a Kansas City Chief) compiled the past two seasons. Although Tebow completes only 45.5% of his pass attempts, he has passed for 8 touchdowns against only one interception these past six weeks, and has rushed for 455 yards and 3 touchdowns to boot. The 6-5 Broncos are only one game behind the Oakland Raiders in the AFC Western division race, as well as one game behind the Cincinnati Bengals for the final AFC wild card spot, so anything’s possible.
But simply changing quarterbacks wasn’t good enough for Bayless. No, because Tebow cannot master today’s NFL offensive schemes, Bayless demanded that head coach John Fox and Executive Vice-President of Football Operations, John Elway, the Broncos’ former Hall-of-Fame quarterback (1983-1998), completely change their offensive scheme to tailor to Tebow’s strengths, which are primarily running the ball, playing out of a hurry-up shotgun formation, and throwing passes to receivers when defenses blow coverage assignments. Because winning is the name of the game, Fox and Elway switched to an option-based scheme (AKA “wishbone” or “veer” in college football). The results speak for themselves. The Broncos are 5-1 after a 1-4 start. They run the ball more than 65% of the time. They pass only when needed or if opportunity presents itself. Is it effective? Relative to the first month of the season, yes. Relative to competing against upper-echelon NFL offenses, the jury’s still out. The Broncos have benefited from playing slog-type games against opponents that struggled against a continuously improving defense. In four games, the Broncos were within a touchdown going into the fourth quarter. Opposing defenses eventually wore down trying to stop such a run-oriented offense, and the Broncos came back to win all five games in the fourth quarter or overtime.
Okay, so what’s the problem? NFL team switches quarterback, offensive scheme, and his biggest media supporter is enjoying the biggest and most-satisfying laugh right now. Well, with Tim Tebow, nothing is simply a matter of football, because he’s a Fundamental Christian and very public and vocal about it. Nothing can be discussed with this young man, a young man I knew absolutely nothing about, nor cared about, prior to 2007, when he won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Florida. Despite having lived and worked in Florida for ten years during the 1980s and 1990s, I have very little interest in Southeastern Conference sports, and the further I’m removed from my college football days (now 30 years and counting), the less interest I have in college football, the Heisman hype, as well as the BCS system. If I watched Tim Tebow play quarterback for U-of-F more than five times prior to the 2010 NFL draft, that was a lot. But I saw enough on television to recognize his flaws at the quarterback position and recommend he not be drafted as a quarterback, and certainly not in the first round, which the Broncos did on both counts.
Contrary to Bayless’ contention that we’re all “Tebow Haters” if we have and express doubts about Tebow’s ability to play quarterback in the NFL, or are rubbed wrong by this young man’s incessant in-your-face presentation about his religious faith, I’m personally rubbed wrong by the entire Tebow package: his ability to play quarterback, his continuous interjection of Right-wing Christianity, his arrogant demands before the 2010 NFL draft that teams only draft him as a quarterback, his public inability to consider the possibility that he might have to switch positions in order to play in the NFL, the marketing machine that advised him to produce an anti-abortion commercial with his mother to be televised during the 2010 Super Bowl (before he was even drafted), the public frenzy his fans and supporters like Bayless whipped themselves into, forcing the struggling Broncos, under a new head coach and front office, to dump Orton as their quarterback, bypass experienced backup Brady Quinn, and insert a bench-riding Tebow into the starting job, change the entire offensive scheme for him, and trading off or waiving an endless list of talented receivers who didn’t feel comfortable playing with Tebow as part of a gimmick, publicity stunt, and popularity contest among fans and supporters who look to this young man as the second coming, the wondrous sign of their “Rapture”, and the great shining hope of some Bible-Belt revival meeting.
Yes, the entire package offends me as a social liberal, former football player, mature, middle-aged and accomplished adult, and as a Jewish-American. While I’ve always advocated social awareness and a sense of conviction among our professional athletes, I also expect that if one is going to spout off in public, one should be able to discuss, or be respectful of, both sides of an issue. I don’t see that attribute with Tebow or his supporters. Like all fundamentalists, their view is all or nothing, and they preach it accordingly. I’ve also advocated that our professional athletes bring some humility to the public forum when they make the transition from collegiate sports. I also don’t see that with Tebow and his supporters who seem to think starting NFL quarterback is Tebow’s divine birthright, and anyone who dare suggest a different position (e.g., running back or tight end) commits biblical blasphemy. It takes more than a lot of chutzpah to demand what your job description should be before you’ve been fully evaluated, drafted and signed by an NFL team. The NFL didn’t and never owed anything to this young man and his supporters. Team Tebow knew well in advanced the questions being raised about his ability to play quarterback. Lord knows it wasn’t and will not be the first time NFL scouts and coaches had doubts about U-of-F or SEC quarterbacks, Heisman winners or not. But Team Tebow insisted starting NFL quarterback was the Lord’s mission.
Lastly, for those who admire Tebow’s commitment to faith (and that includes me, to a limited degree), what if the quarterback’s name was Chaim Lipschitz, a rebel kid from Crown Heights who dropped out of a Yeshiva to learn about and play football at a Big East program like Rutgers? What if Rutgers had to petition to the Big East and NCAA to ensure all their games were played on Thursdays? What if Mr. Lipschitz was a bearded version of Dan Marino inside the stadium and looked like he should be working in the Diamond District outside the stadium? What if ESPN interviewed him before the draft and he started quoting from the Talmud? What if the team drafting him found out he couldn’t play for an entire month of the regular season because games conflicted with Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot?
And this brings us to Mr. Skip Bayless, ESPN’s version of Anne Coulter. Here’s a man who’s so blindly supportive of Tim Tebow that he actually told Stephen A. Smith during a First Take debate that Tebow was being “discriminated” against for being a running quarterback, just like Michael Vick and Vince Young. I was just as incredulous as Smith was when Bayless offered this theory. Vick and Young are African-American quarterbacks, and that’s why they were discriminated against, just like Donovan McNabb, Warren Moon, and Doug Williams were. These men weren’t discriminated because of their ability or inability to run; they were discriminated on the basis of their race and presumed lack of intellect. Now, I will go on the record and say that neither Michael Vick nor Vince Young have the intellect to be successful NFL quarterbacks like many other quarterbacks are and have been, but I also have that same assessment for Tim Tebow. Vick, Young and Tebow can’t hold a candle to McNabb or Moon, not to mention Steve Young, Joe Montana, or John Elway when it comes to intellect about the game as well as the ability to run and pass. The ability to play NFL quarterback is a function of talent and smarts, not the color of one’s skin.
That a veteran sportswriter like Bayless would even utter the notion that Tebow is some kind of persecution victim not only shows a complete lack of understanding about what “discrimination” even means, but demonstrates why our continuously evolving and diversifying nation continues to polarize worse and worse. Does Tebow represent some kind of “getting back America” mentality that white, fundamental Christians have been yammering about since the 2008 presidential election? Yes, I think there’s some element to that, but one only need to listen to more of Bayless’ “bloviating” to see something more troubling and hypocritical.
Surprisingly, Bayless advocates for Michael Vick and Vince Young as running quarterbacks, so Bayless isn’t necessarily using race as his lens, even though he doesn’t completely understand how to use race in the first place. But Bayless is not necessarily an advocate of Donovan McNabb, an African-American (and a proud and dignified one) quarterback who used to be a good runner. After McNabb was granted his release by the Minnesota Vikings yesterday, Bayless commented that McNabb was “out of shape” towards the end of his tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, when he reported to the Washington Redskins last year (after the Eagles traded him), and when he reported to the Vikings for training camp this year. Bayless questioned McNabb’s conditioning and commitment to playing football after a 12-year NFL career. While some folks might agree with Bayless’ view and see nothing more to it, I’m not among them.
It’s no secret that as this NFL season has progressed, Bayless has been extremely vocal in his distain for Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Despite last season’s Super Bowl championship and this season’s 11-0 start and Rodgers statistics (127.7 QB rating, 33 TDs, 4 INTs, almost 3500 yards passing), Bayless swears by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (105.5 QB rating, 28 TDs, 10 INTs, over 3600 yards passing) as the Most-Valuable Player. This is highly confusing but not impossible to decipher.
We need to begin with a basic question: what does Bayless have against Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay? Well, first we must appreciate that Rodgers’ younger brother, Jordan, plays quarterback for Vanderbilt University, which happens to be Bayless’ alma mater, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Bayless thinks the world of the younger Rodgers but routinely criticizes the elder one, who went to college at the University of California-Berkeley. Rodgers was a first-round draft pick of the Packers in 2005. He spent three seasons on the bench while the Packers were quarterbacked by Brett Favre. Remember him? One day in 2008, Ol’ Brett retired to his farm in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Rodgers inherited the quarterback job. Then Brett changed his mind and came out of retirement. Then the Packers traded Brett to the New York Jets, and... You know the rest of the story leading up to Brett’s most-recent retired status in 2011.
Brett Favre was one of Bayless’ favorites, a good ol’ boy from the heart of Dixie. Yeah, Brett drank, raised hell and played by the seat of his pants. And, boy, Ol’ Brett sure could run around and throw like the best of them, despite his lack of self-discipline. He was the 1990s version of Bobby Layne and Buddy Parker, two redneck quarterbacks who excited fans during the 1950s. If you watched Brett play the last three years of his career, he looked rather paunchy and unconditioned wearing a Jets uniform in 2008 and a Vikings uniform in 2009 and 2010, and it showed as each season moved along from September to December. He looked old. His behavior was erratic. He looked tired. He looked beaten up. He looked washed up. He played injured, costing his teams while he padded his Hall of Fame resume. More often than not, Brett Favre came out on the right end of the scoreboard, which is one of many reasons for his eventual enshrinement in Canton. But the Packers discarded this noble Prince of the South before Brett and his fans thought the time was right, making Aaron Rodgers an enemy of the Rebel Flag.
So now we can connect some dots: Skip Bayless gushes over Brett Favre, Michael Vick, Vince Young and Tim Tebow, and even Jordan Rodgers, but not Donovan McNabb (a Chicago native who played college football for Syracuse) or Aaron Rodgers. This may be but a limited sample of Skip Bayless, but might we be shocked to go through his publishing and social media archives and see mostly positive support for quarterbacks like Phillip Rivers, Jay Cutler, the Manning brothers, the late Steve McNair, Tony Romo and Drew Brees — quarterbacks who either grew up in the South, played college football in the South, or play for Southern-state NFL teams? Might we conversely notice mostly negative support towards quarterbacks like Steve Young (Connecticut native, graduate of BYU in Utah), Mark Sanchez (Southern California native, played at USC) or even Matt Hasselbach (Massachusetts native, graduate of Boston College)?
It’s just a thought, but perhaps Skip Bayless wears more than his support of Tim Tebow on his sleeve, and is incapable of socio-political neutrality. If Bayless was specifically an employee of some southern pep squad, perhaps his blatant bias would be both understandable and acceptable, but Bayless is a journalist, and paid to maintain the standards of neutrality for a cable network that does not act in any politically-driven capacity. If Bayless’ heart is that entrenched in the heart of Dixie, then perhaps ESPN should relocate him geographically to his own private studio where his loyalties and commitment to objectivity are. Again, ask yourself how Bayless would represent ESPN if the Denver Broncos quarterback’s name was Chaim Lipschitz.
Reminder — Don’t forget my new book is available (and on sale) in both paperback and eBook (PDF) format at Lulu.com.
Contact me for further discounts or coupon information. Buy and read it because you want something to THINK about.
Philosophy of “Packer” Pedagogy:
Vince Lombardi, critical thinking and problem-based learning
