A New Hope?

Like many others who found nothing else on TV this weekend, I watched a little bit of the NFL Combine. One of the more ingenious things the NFL has done over the last 8 years was airing The Combine live on NFL Network. It finally gave losers like me a chance to see with my own eyes how a NFL Prospect performed, rather than have one of their "experts" tell me what he saw on Total Access later that evening.

If you haven't seen the NFL Combine before, it mildly flirts with homo-eroticism by showcasing these over-muscled and super humanly strong/fast young men in skin tight clothing. While wearing said clothing, these prospects are then asked to go through a litany of football drills. Exactly what purpose does it really serve? Depends on who you ask since the actual evaluators won't let their true feelings be known until Draft Day. Either way though, the NFL Combine has become must-see TV for all NFL Draft Enthusiasts, and I count myself among them.

As I was watching today, I had a bit of an epiphany. Robert Griffin III (RGIII) became the story of the day, as he ran a 4.41 40 yard dash. Obviously RGIII is no stranger to anyone who follows college football since he's the most recent Heisman Trophy winner. Somewhere during the telecast, this question randomly popped into my head:

"Why is Tim Tebow worshipped, and RGIII isn't?

After all, there's nothing individually that Tebow had done in college that RGIII hasn't. RGIII also won the Heisman as Tebow did. RGIII set all kinds of conference records with his performance on the field. Here's the kicker though, RGIII graduated college in December of 2010 with a degree in Political Science, mainly because he wanted to "...get my grad school paid for while I'm already under scholarship". RGIII is aspiring to become a lawyer, and is pursuing his masters in Communications.

In terms of who impresses me off the field? That's not even a contest. There's Tebow and his incessant "I love god, blah, blah, blah" speech that seems to be stuck on "repeat" anytime a microphone is shoved in front of him. Then there's RGIII, who makes prescient statements like "This is unbelievably believable...It's unbelievable because in the moment we're all amazed when great things happen. But it's believable because great things don't happen without hard work." while accepting his Heisman Trophy. Game. Set. Match RGIII.

On the field? We'll have to wait until next season to find out for sure, but for my money I'm going on the record right now, RGIII will be a better QB in his first season than Tebow ever will be for his entire career.

Mark it down, right now. It's already a fact that RGIII is much faster than Tebow. It's already a fact that RGIII has a stronger and more accurate arm than Tebow, and it will soon be fact that RGIII will be drafted much higher than Tebow was.

Which brings me back to my original question. Why isn't RGIII worshipped the same way Tebow was coming out of college? The easy answer is the God Complex which Tebow suffers from appeals to the stupid out there, while I have yet to hear if RGIII mention any reference to an afterlife. The ugly answer is that RGIII's skin tone doesn't match Tebow's, but I don't buy that. Neither answer serves as a satisfactory one for me.

In my opinion, the answer appears to be that the NFL audience hasn't gotten a chance to get to know RGIII in detail yet. The good news is, they will get to know all about him very soon. When they do get to know RGIII, they are going to be very impressed with what they see and hear, on and off the field.

My hope is that they will be so impressed, that Tebow eventually becomes the "Oh Yeah Tebow....whatever happened to that guy?"