I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that we won't be seeing the Florida golden boy QB that we have grown to love, Tim Tebow, QBing ever again. Ironically, that is also the good news. It is not that Tebow is no longer going to be playing football, but rather that the Tebow style of throwing has reached the end of its rope and the new era of Tebow 2.0 is upon us.
After being highly criticized for not being an NFL style quarter back, with a throw that is to drawn out and easily read, many people put to bed the idea of Tebow being succesful after is reign in Florida. But recently Tebow has announced that he has been working on a new style that is more suited for professional football. Although, he will not be playing for scouts in the Combine he will showcase his new perfected throw on Pro Day, March 17th.
Tebow being the talk of the Combine has gotten some mixed reviews. Niners General Manager Scot McCloughan pointed out that "a good football player is a good football player" and there is no denying that Tebow was good at the college game. However some continue to believe that there is just not enough time for Tebow to fix some of his fatal flaws in his fundamentals. Is his inherent skill enough to carry him into the NFL or is it too little to late for Tebow?
All this talk about what he needs to do in order to prepare for the NFL has got me thinking about College football and whether or not it prepares athletes for the next level of the game. Shouldn't some of these things that he is trying to master and perfect been address during his time in Florida?
Generally speaking, high school prepares you for college, and college prepares you for your professional life thereafter, but in the current style of college football that isn’t the case. Perhaps, it is the inherent physicality of the sport that makes it different than basketball and baseball, but to any person who does not follow football it is puzzling that one of the most worshipped celebrated QBs in recent years may go from college hero to NFL zero overnight. Does this suggest an inherent flaw in college football? Should there be some type of onus on the coaches to prepare these boys to be successful on the next level and not just be the cash cow of a major university?
I wouldn't call it a flaw in college fball, but the sports are fundamentally different. One of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell digs into some of these differences in an article called "Most Likely to Succeed." Basically, the spread offense and the disparity of athletic talent within the NCAA account for much of the difference between NCAA and NFL football. NFL scouts just need to account for that and develop a farm system (is the NFL the only major sport without one?) that will allow players to transition more smoothly.
ReplyDeleteFor so long MANY people spent time hating Tim Tebow, but now that I have to hear people talk about how horrible he is as a quarterback, I kind of feel bad for him.
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