Brewers Pitcher John Axford Takes a Shot at Tim Tebow, Comparing Him to a Kardashian

Which is why I completely disagree with Brewers’ relief pitcher John Axford, who tweeted, “Tim Tebow has become a Kardashian of professional sports.” I’m sure Axford threw “professional” in there to try and help his argument, but the Tebow hype has been building since college. (Axford has softened clarified his stance in recent tweets.)

Tebow was one of the most accomplished college football players ever. Announcers (and the media in general) have been drooling since his junior year, when he won the Heisman and a 2nd National title (he was a goal line QB as a freshman on the title-winning team). So Tebow entered the NFL with incredible hype. Remember when we got daily updates from ESPN about Tebow’s throwing mechanics and what might happen to him in the draft? ESPN was debating Tebow on a daily basis, regardless of what else was happening in the world of sports.

Then the Broncos reached for Tebow in round one, and he mostly sat on the bench as a rookie and nobody cared about him because the Broncos were bad. His jersey wasn’t popular. The ESPN debates ceased.

The reason he’s so popular right now is what happened last year. Denver started 1-4, then Tebow entered the picture, led the team to six straight wins and a playoff appearance. (It helped that the Chargers were a colossal disappointment.) Tebow became the NFL’s No. 1 story because every week, it seemed, he’d rally his team to victory (see Miami, New York, San Diego, Minnesota and Chicago). Fans loved him. Women loved him. In less than two years, the arc went from “can he play in the NFL?” to “he’s the most popular player in the NFL.”

Then he threw a game-winning TD pass in overtime to beat the Steelers in the first round of the playoffs.

Who cares if the Broncos got pistol whipped by New England the next week? Tebow proved – for half a season, at least – that he could compete at the NFL level even if he wasn’t a traditional QB. Will it last? Of course not. Could he be successful with the Jets in certain scenarios? Yup. Will the media continue to obsess over Tebow? Unfortunately, yes.