God bless Twitter.
It’s that loaded gun that can be under-utilized, or abused. It gets guys like NY Rep. Weiner (what an appropriate name) in hot water and resign from public office.
It can be also be downright entertaining, as the Twitter war waged between the Ravens’ Ray Rice and my Steelers’ Ryan Clark (GO STEELERS!) showed. Well, add the LeBron James/Tim Tebow vs. Merrill Hoge Twitter beef to the entertainment category.
Hoge, one of the best NFL analysts on ESPN, started it all by saying the following on Twitter:
“Sitting watching tape off bronco offense from last year! Orton or Tebow? It’s embarrassing to think the broncos could win with tebow!!”
He later explained on SportsCenter that “he is awful as far as accuracy goes and what’s kind of even more disturbing, he’s probably worse moving and running around with the football and throwing than he is from the pocket. Can you get better there? A little bit. If everything is perfect, the pocket, your feet are good, all your fundamentals come into place, the coverage is what you want it, you can be successful. But that doesn’t happen at the National Football League. Rarely does that happen.”
For some reason Hoge’s criticism got James all hot and bothered (wish he played that way in the NBA Finals). James tweeted:
“Listened to Merril Hoge today on SC and he was just blasting Tebow. The man hasn’t even play a full season and its only his 2nd year in. Guys get on that TV and act like they was all WORLD when they played. How bout encouraging him and wishing him the best instead of hating!!”
For good measure, James added: “Tim Tebow will succeed in the NFL. He’s a hard worker, a student of the game, a natural born leader and most of all a WINNER! It takes time and he’ll be nice.”
Where was Tebow in all this you ask? All he tweeted was “Hey Merril…… ‘ppreciate that.”
Look, I am not here to throw stones at Tebow. He seems to be a nice kid and obviously works very hard to become a better QB. I even hopes that he does well in the NFL.
The only problem is that Tebow is limited. Like Hoge said, Tebow has a problem with accuracy. He has a throwing motion that prevents him from getting the ball out quickly and causes a low trajectory as the ball comes out. And while he is a decent runner, he is not fast and has to rely on his power. That alone will prevent Tebow from playing all 16 games in an NFL season.
Meanwhile, James should back the hell away from Twitter and work on developing a low-post game and some heart. But hey, what’s wrong with a little Twitter war?
As I said earlier, God bless Twitter.
Categories: NFL, sports story
Band Wagoner. Anyone whos watched film has seen that Tebow is amazingly accurate especially the deep balls. Many of his passes were dropped. I’m sure if you all actually watched film you would see.
In case you forgot when the ball bounces off the hands or facemask of a receiver its an incomplete for the QB.
Alright asdafds. All I have to say is listen to his Bronco teammates. To a man they think Orton gives them the best chance to win. I wonder why that is?
If Denver didn’t have a defense that you, myself and 9 other folks off the street can score on at will, it would win more games, especially with Orton at the helm. Take a look at Orton’s stats and highlights from last season on NFL.com if you don’t believe me. Now THAT film doesn’t lie dude (or dudette)…
A great example of creating a controversy out of thin air where none existed. Orton did pretty well last season, as you pointed out. Tebow could have continued to develop as a backup and maybe come in on goal line or short yardage situations which play to his strengths.
Now, by announcing Tebow as the starter, unsuccesfully trying to deal Orton and having to completely reverse field, the Broncos look like idiots and both QB’s have been insulted. If this keeps up, we may have to call them the Denver Bengals.