If you follow NFL football at all, you probably heard all the talk about Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos’ quarterback. He is the most polarizing figure in sports today. But, why? 

First some background. Tim won 2 national championships in college football as the quarterback of the Florida Gators. He also won the Heisman. But there was a lot of talk from “people in the know” that he wasn’t ready or even capable of being an NFL quarterback. The typical criticisms: He is a running quarterback; Florida didn’t run a pro-style offense; and his throwing mechanics and footwork were criticized. But there is no fool proof way to evaluate a college quarterbacks success at the next level.  Just ask the teams and all those prognosticators that selected or advocated for JaMarcus Russell, Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith, Cade McNown … or teams that passed on Tom Brady. I could go on and on. Tebow was drafted by the Denver Bronco’s with the 25^th pick in the draft. It’s fair to say, the pick was widely criticized.

In his first season in Denver, he played sparingly in six games as a back-up. He also had the best-selling jersey in the entire NFL. What?  A back-up quarterback had the best selling jersey. Yep.

Fast forward to this season; Tebow is again buried on the Bronco’s depth chart. But the team gets off to a rough start winning only once in their first five games. Tebow becomes the starter. In his first start, Tebow and the Broncos struggled in the first three-and-a-half quarters against the Dolphins, but rallied from a 15–0 deficit in the last three minutes to win the game, 18–15, in overtime. Denver became the first team in NFL history to win a game after being down by at least 15 points with three minutes to play in a game. Wow. The Bronco’s have gone 5 and 1 since Tebow took over. Not too shabby.

But it’s the way Denver is winning that is raising some eyebrows. In one win, Tebow only attempted 8 passes. This is a league where it’s not unusual to see a quarterback attempt 40 passes per game.  Of course, he is running a lot.  But despite the success, the criticism of Tebow’s play continues and loudly.  Why?

First, let me vent on some of the football experts who just can’t believe Tebow and the Broncos are winning. When a team successfully runs the ball, as Denver does, it has benefits that reach far and wide.

• It shortens the game. The clock keeps running on running plays. This gives the other teams less chances to score. Games will be close. Tebow has shown he plays pretty well under pressure.
• It keeps your defense rested. Possession of the football on sustained drives, keeps your defense on the sidelines resting.  When they do get on the field, they can go all out. Is it any coincidence that Denver’s defense suddenly looks awesome?
• Offensive linemen love to run block.  It’s simple. When pass blocking, offensive linemen retreat at the snap of the ball and take the punishment the defensive linemen charging ahead. But when a team runs the ball, offensive linemen get to dish out the physical punishment. They love that and a running team usually wears down their opponents.  Denver looks pretty good at the end of games, don’t they?
• It’s a passing league nowadays because of mostly rule changes, but that has implications.  Smaller, quicker defenders to stop the pass might not match up so well against the run. 
• It sets up the pass! In order to stop the run, defensive teams have to crowd the line of scrimmage. Then it’s a little easier to throw it over their heads! Guess where Denver ranks in yards per completion over the last 3 games. No, guess. Okay, #1. And it’s not even close.

I remember when my Redskins could run the football and used to win super bowls, but I digress.  Football ain’t rocket science, but it sure is big business.

So why does “Tim Tremendous” seem to have so many haters. Is it because, as some speculate, of his strong and public displays of his Christian faith. I don’t think so. Not entirely. The NFL is full of strong and outwardly so Christians – even top quarterbacks – like Drew Brees. TV shows images of players praying and praying together all the time. I don’t think that’s it.

It is interesting to note though that in 2010, the NCAA created a new rule for football dubbed “The Tebow Rule” which banned messages on eye paint. During his college football career, Tebow frequently wore biblical verses on his eye black. In the 2009 BCS Championship Game, he wore John 3:16 on his eye paint, and as a result, 92 million people searched “John 3:16″ on Google during or shortly after the game. Amazing and awesome.

Anyway, as simple as it sounds, Tebow is hated by many because he is disrupting the status quo. He is doing something the so called “experts” and others say can’t be done. If you saw the movie or read the book “Moneyball,” you know Billy Bean was hated inside of baseball because he was challenging decades of group think about what was important in baseball. Tim is changing how people need to think about what makes a successful NFL quarterback. And I know it’s just sports, but people are crazy about their football. (This is why lots of people also hate Tebow – because while at Florida he routinely beat their alma mater, now in the NFL he is beating their team, or because their team has a terrible quarterback.)

This happens all the time. A LOT of folk just don’t like change. Is someone creating some change in your life? Perhaps you’ve been an agent of change and felt the hate. I’m here to tell you to grab a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese” and embrace it – change that is. It’s all around us and here to stay.

Enjoy your football this weekend. It’s “Tebow Time.”

Maya Angelou says “…I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Maya, may I add “and email, internet and phone systems that just refuse to work consistently…” Trust that I learned a lot about myself over the past two weeks. I learned that I can get frustrated in a hot second but….can calm down even faster and focus on solutions. I learned that at my core I truly do believe that there is no such thing as an unsolvable problem…just plenty of opportunity to address a challenge, learn and grow.  Last week the system went down and the company lost phone service, internet service AND email. It amazes me how we’ve become so dependent on technology to move business. And in the same instant came the realization that a challenge with technology was to be addressed and resolved with technology!! Just send text message to the company’s technology vendor, advise them of the issue, then let them work, trusting they will get it resolved. Use the mobile phone to call clients, employees, vendors, etc. to in essence keep it all moving. We were down the entire day and into the next morning where we were back up by 10:30 am and everything continued to be addressed. Today, it’s the following week. Monday. No email coming in or going out. Frustrated…yes but again only briefly. Just advised the technology vendor, grabbed the cell phone…and kept it moving!! And in the midst, the question “what will I blog about?” also got answered! I also learned that a silent email box makes way for checking a lot off the “to do” list–and was again reminded that “IT’S ALL GOOD!”A good attitude and a focus on addressing the challenge is the answer to any frustration instead of complaining, blaming or getting angry–all unproductive at best.  It made me think of something else Maya Angelou said “I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one!”

The movie “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt comes out soon. I am looking forward to seeing it. It’s based on a fantastic book of the same name by Michael Lewis. One of my favorite stories in a book full of great baseball stories is below:

“Chad Bradford grew up the youngest child of a lower-middle class family in a small town called Byram, Mississippi, outside of the larger one called Jackson.“Country” is how he describes himself. Not long before Chad’s second birthday his father suffered a stroke that nearly killed him, and left him paralyzed. The doctors had told his father that he’d never walk again. His father insisted this just wasn’t true. He looked up from his bed, stone-faced, and announced his intention to raise his three boys and earn a living. Through an act of will, which he also thought of as an act of God, he did just that. By Chad’s seventh birthday his father was able not only to walk but, in a fashion, to play catch with his son.  He would never again be able to lift his arm over his shoulder, so he couldn’t throw properly. But he could get a glove up to stop a ball. And after he caught the ball from Chad, he would toss it back to him underhanded. The strange throwing motion stuck in the little boy’s mind.

Playing catch with his father was one of the things that made Chad happiest. His father didn’t have any particular ambition for him, except that he should be happy, remain a Christian, and that his happiness and his Christianity should occur within the confines of Mississippi. The Bradfords didn’t know any professional baseball players; they didn’t know anyone who knew any professional baseball players. But twice Chad was asked by his school teachers to write autobiographical essays, and both times he took professional baseball as his theme. At the age of eight he wrote: What I Want to Be When I Grow Up. 

If I were A grown up
I would be a baseball player
And I would play for the Dodgers
I hope to play for the Cardinals too.
I hope to play for the Oriole too
And for all the teams I would
Play shotestop.

“Shotesop” being the phonetic spelling, in Byram, Mississippi. Five years later, when Chad was thirteen, his teacher asked him and the other students to write the stories of their lives, as they looked back on them from their imagined old age. With the perspective of hindsight Chad Bradford could see that he had married right out of school, had two children, a son and a daughter, and become not a big league shortstop but a big league pitcher. He imagined no other future for himself and so it was lucky that no other future awaited him. Right after his high school graduation, at the age of eighteen, he married his girlfriend, Jenny Lack, who soon bore him a son, then a daughter. Between the two births, at the age of twenty-three, Chad Bradford made his debut in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox.  The power of an imagination can arise from what it refuses to foresee.”

This little excerpt leaves out the important fact that Chad made it to the big leagues basically throwing underhanded! Just like his father.

Wanda and I have often talked over the years about the power of the mind (and tongue) for good. As we all get older it seems to me that we have less and less worthy dreams and aspirations. We hold back our imaginations out of fear of failure (there is no such thing), ridicule, or through excuses about being too busy, too tired, or too old. Nonsense. 

Let your imagination run wild and then chase after it.

I absolutely love life, and if the last two weeks are any indication, that love does not wane no matter what is thrown my way!! The term “just go with the flow” and “it’s all good” were my mantras for the past several weeks and I was repeating them out loud, consistently preceded by “what the ??!?!” My nephews were visiting from Atlanta and we had spent almost 23 hours reconnecting, laughing, and dining! Their uncle and cousins came by and it was a delightful time had by all. Once the dishes were cleared and the last goodbyes and goodnights were espoused with expressions of love, we settled down for a good night’s rest.  And then…I awakened at 1:00 am to see…wait for it…A BAT flying in my room. As I screamed (louder than I knew I could) and ran (faster than I knew I could), through the house …not a creature was stirring except me and the BAT. That’s right…the nephews did not budge. Granted they were on another floor in two guest rooms with doors closed…but remember the loud screaming?! Exactly…should’ve awakened the dead!! Because they didn’t awaken…I actually started to question whether or not I really saw a bat. Was I simply dreaming? As I tried to calm down and ponder these things, here comes the bat flying down the hall toward me looking like something out of a Vampire movie!! Imagine more screaming (I did see a bat, I did see a bat), now yelling my nephews names and running up the staircase to their rooms. They still did not budge. I finally banged on one door until I heard a faint “what?!  Are you sure it’s a bat?!” At that moment I turned around and …you got it…the bat is flying horror movie style up the staircase!!!  What the ??!?! In the next moment, I was in the guest room, door slammed behind me, breathing heavy and looking like I was the star in that horror movie. Needless to say it took a moment to get our bearings, my nephew called the Sherriff then the animal protection group, who arrived in 20 minutes and took two hours to capture the bat (who I aptly named “what the ?!?!”) and inspected the entire house (except the room housing my 2^nd nephew who NEVER AWAKENED) to surmise “I am 98% certain that there are no other bats in your home.” In case you are wondering…I had the house inspected again the next day to ensure 100% that there were no other bats or signs of bats.” And just when I had recovered from that episode…here comes an Earthquake (did that just happen or was I dreaming?).  What the ?!?!.  Shaken not stirred…it’s all good!  Then…Hurricane Irene is doing what and coming where?!?  What the ?!?!…I really think my mantra has changed, don’t you?  However…I’m still here and it’s all good, and that’s all that matters right?!!!!  J

Okay –How about I have been enjoying a day in Hawaii by the pool, reading my latest O magazine, sipping on spirits tropical and amazing, and listening to my music in bliss. Who comes down to sit next to me? A couple, each with their cell phones, talking to other folk, not each other, and briefly disturbing my peace.  Key word–BRIEFLY! It made me ponder:  have our devices aided us in ignoring our partners, our space, our nowness? It’s amazing with all the distractions how do we hear each other, less known our own inner voice? I will not allow them to disturb my peace–although they are arguing about the use of each other’s phone and one is complaining (???) to the caller about the hotel and the island. Could they be Big Diamond members with unrealistic expectations? Or, simply reaping their intention?  Honestly, I want to smack them!  

Deep breath Wanda!!! I am trusting GOD to help me stay centered and focused on what I am doing–enjoying myself with ME!! Looked at my watch–lunch in 25 minutes! Okay, now I am laughing out loud!!! I got my joy back!!