It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if college football “golden boy” Tim Tebow was linked to a string of unsolved hobo murders in the greater Gainesville area sometime in the near future. It’s something akin to a “too good to be true” syndrome, looking for the dark secret buried underneath the gilded layer that shines ever so prominently in the public arena. Maybe it’s post-Watergate inability to take a public figure at his word, or maybe it’s because Bill Clinton liked fatties. A buried mistress here, a blown Ponzi scheme there, and anyone can just about fall from the self-appointed grace of fame and fortune.

What bewilders me about my Tebow antipathy is how unnecessary it is. Florida is in the SEC, and Clemson is in the ACC; never the twain shall meet, unless Dabo can pull off a miracle and get us somehow into a national bowl game (something like the Huggies International or the Smuckers Invitational isn’t going to cut it). And it’s not like Tebow is a monster: the man goes back to his Christian missionary roots in the Far East, performing charity work in the off-season. He wears his faith on his sleeve (which invites the almost inevitable “getting caught with a hooker and a million dollars embezzled from his followers” outcome perfected by Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert, but so far he’s clean). He’s a fine, upstanding moral exemplar. Why can’t I embrace him on face value?

It might have something to do with his anointment as “the greatest player in college football history, ever” by ESPN (an aberration, because the four-letter network is known for calm, rational evaluations of sports in general and sober, unbiased analysis of sports figures, with absolutely no emphasis made on “noteworthy plays” in any sort of top-ten highlight mode). It’s on the same level as, say, MTV pimping out Lady Gaga twenty-four/seven as “the New Madonna” when the Old Madonna is still perfectly good (and her music is more memorable). Tebow, in this scenario, isn’t at fault; he’s caught in the maelstrom of what ESPN and other sports-centered outlets (sports talk radio, blogs, my neighbor Randy) have created around him. I can’t say I blame them; college football has been too long without a compelling (and divisive) figure like Tebow on the field. Speculation about his NFL worthiness, inquiries into his stance on pre-marital sex, and admiration of his genuinely noble charity work is one photospread away from a “Cosmo” or “Tiger Beat” write-up.

With a nasty concussion this past Saturday (arguably being left out too long in a 40-7 blow-out against Kentucky), Tebow has officially gone on “Death Watch ‘09” status nevermind the fact that, as of this writing, he seems to be okay. Whatever my animus towards Tebow (unfounded as it is, as I hope I’ve demonstrated to myself over the past few paragraphs), I do hope he comes back, if only so Dabo and my Tigers can embarrass the Gators in the All-Time World Championship that’s being played in my imagination (sponsored by Geico, no doubt). In a world full of villains, Tim Tebow might be the genuine article of goodness and light. I just wish ESPN would quit talking about him for a few minutes, at least. Note to the four-letter network: maybe Tebow is just not that into you?