Tebowgame

Yesterday afternoon I was driving down University Avenue in Gainesville, just east of the University of Florida. Passing by one of the locally-owned eateries, I noticed what was on the sign out front: Tebowgame Here. I hadn't heard it referred to like that, but I liked it. Tebowgame.

The Miami Dolphins owner and management had decided weeks ago to schedule a tribute to Florida's college national championship team of 2008. Former coach Urban Meyer was invited along with players and staff from that great season. The special ceremonies took place at halftime, and Meyer stood together with the team owner during the game. Of course, the Gator star quarterback from that year was Tim Tebow, who incidentally received his first starting assignment this year as Denver Broncos quarterback for their game today against the Dolphins. Hence the name "Tebowgame".

It was mentioned on the TV broadcast of the game that with the Dolphins organization honoring the Gators, bitter rivals of the home college team the University of Miami, this probably didn't sit too well with UM's most ardent fans, especially with the ceremonies taking place in their own home stadium. But my beef was different: I didn't particularly like the idea of Tebow being in there trying to beat the one sports team that I have consistently rooted for since my childhood in the 1960's.

Tebow, albeit showing some flashes of promise, was generally ineffective for almost the entire Denver-Miami game...and then it got to be late in the fourth quarter with Miami dominating 15-0. Suddenly, "Tebowgame" cranked up into high gear, with the local hero throwing two touchdown passes, scrambling for running yards, avoiding sacks, and then running in himself the two-point conversion that tied the game with 17 seconds to go and sent it into overtime. Then, after Denver recovered a Miami fumble, Tebow kept the ball on the ground with hand-offs that set up their winning field goal. Final score: Tebow's Denver Broncos 18, (sadly) my Miami Dolphins 15.

Denver's win kept them with some slim hopes for reaching the playoffs this year, while Miami dropped to 0-6. I'd like to say that this Dolphins loss was a heartbreaker, but after seeing the game myself I have to say that they pretty much handed the game over to Denver with their own mistakes and deserved the loss.

Maybe Denver can ride the momentum of this win for the coming weeks and end up with a decent season. Miami, on the other hand, is clearly a very sloppy and undisciplined team, quite the opposite of how I thought it would turn out when Bill Parcells was hired in 2008 to turn around the team's misfortunes after a disastrous 1-15 season (after Nick Saban had suddenly deserted the team in mid-contract to pursue his University of Alabama dream coaching job). Well, Parcells has been gone for a while and it looks as if they need another almost complete overhaul. I say "almost" because quarterback Matt Moore, who is standing in for injured starter Chad Henne, was actually quite good (although he was responsible for that game-turning fumble in overtime)...