So, I’ve been thinking more about this Tim Tebow thing. I alluded to it (briefly) on Monday and I can’t stop thinking about it. Let me review first:
In the Florida/LSU game on Saturday night we had what seemed like a reversal of philosophies. LSU started running some weird “spread-offense-type-stuff” and Florida started running all these strange looking “dive” plays. It was like being in the “Twilight Zone” watching these two teams do things that they don’t normally do; it was as if they had switched brains or something (just like some kind of weird episode of “Twilight Zone”.) Even the announcing crew thought it was strange that the two teams had gone in complete opposite directions from each other (and themselves.)
Personally, at first thought I figured that early on one team figured out the other and in doing so these two teams are SO good and SO talented that they can throw in packages of this stuff just to confuse their opponents. That makes sense, right? These teams have so many athletes and such good coaching that they can just DO some things just becase they feel like it. Right?
Well, the game went on and it didn’t change. In fact, the “dive” plays from Florida happened ALOT and it was starting to look like they had practiced that all week. Now I’m wondering…what’s wrong with Tim Tebow? Had they prepared for Tim Tebow to be out and suddenly he was cleared to play? Or, did something a little more shady happen?
We have to ask, don’t we? Tim Tebow took a knee to the back of the head a couple weeks ago (from his own player no less) and he suffered a concussion. He took some time off and all last week leading up to the game against LSU the buzz everyday was saying “Will Tim Tebow be cleared to play on Saturday?” and over and over Urban Meyer said that if Tebow was medically cleared to play that he would. Well, like most of you probably, I thought that medical clearance would come on Wednesday or Thursday. It didn’t come until Saturday…right before the game.
This is where I realized something might be going on. Tim Tebow isn’t cleared to play until right before the game and they run this completely foreign offense and barely beat LSU? [I know LSU was #4, but LSU couldn’t hold a candle to Florida.] Now I have a theory; Tim Tebow is more messed up than Florida is letting on.
Think about it for a minute. Florida doesn’t have any rules governing what they tell the media about their player’s injury statuses, so they keep the media at bay by saying “He’ll play if he’s cleared medically.” and then let the media just run with it. Here’s the problem…he wasn’t cleared until right before the game. Did I mention that? I know you can’t stop a grown man (which Tebow is) from playing, but you are still dealing with a college kid (and a saintly one at that.) So, why wouldn’t you be a little more careful with him? It’s not like he was going to tell the coaches “No” if they had held him out of the LSU game.
I feel like Florida spent all week just hoping Tebow would get cleared at any minute. Kind of like when the Meter Maid stands next to your car and waits for the meter to run out.
This is a crappy realization for me because I like Urban Meyer, for the most part (I mean, he’s a curmudgeon, but he’s good) but now I feel like he might be playing with fire and with this kid’s health. When are concussions going to be looked at as serious? (I know Urban Meyer could argue that the Gators gained 327 yards of total offense, but it was a bad looking 327 yards.)
Don’t we have dozens of examples of retired football players who have dementia, persistent headaches, horrible nightmares, and other physical ailments that Doctors have directly related to concussion? Isn’t that enough for people to have a little pause before they put a kid in a Football Game (regardless of how big the game is)?
Some studies have shown that as many as 3 million sports concussions happen every year. I don’t know about you, but that is a crazy number to me. 3 Million? Who would’ve thought that there are that many? All 3 million of those people are at risk (if it’s just one per person and you know it probably isn’t) and how many of them are being trotted back out on the field because their team “needs them”? It’s just a thought, but the game is not nearly as important as your health for the rest of your life.
If I may be so bold (I’m not a Doctor, but I thought I could say something helpful here): You know you might have a concussion if you passed out after the blow to your head. Also, you might have headaches, dizziness or even nausea afterwards. Some people say you may need to limit your diet to liquids and most people say you shouldn’t take any medication without asking your Doctor what to do first. Just be safe…for the General :o)
Now Let Me Piggyback That Idea…
Don’t we think that the NCAA has some of its priorities out of whack? Here we have some potential issues with Tim Tebow’s medical clearance right before a game and you don’t hear a peep from the NCAA, but if you go about a thousand miles west you’ve got the NCAA all over Dez Bryant (at Okie State) for working out with Deion Sanders. Really, I know the NCAA has rules, but how can they have rules for player’s working out with some famous athlete at the famous athlete’s house and NOT have rules regading how coaches report serious injuries to their players?
To stay on the Dez Bryant situation…I’m a musician and when I was in college I took lessons from famous musicians. One time, the lesson was on the house(and at his house.) I never once had an NCAA-type group for music come knocking on the school’s door wondering why I got a free lesson. I got lucky. So Dez Bryant got to workout with Deion Sanders…good for him, and more power to Deion for helping the kid out.
I even saw Deion apologizing for the whole thing on the NFL Network and I read that Dez Bryant had to hire an attorney and that Okie State was asking the NCAA to “go easy” on Bryant.
Wait a minute! Dez Bryant can’t hire an agent or he forfeits his eligibility, but if the NCAA wants to mess with him he’ll have to hire a lawyer?
Why does Oklahoma State need to make a plea for lieniency for something like this? Shouldn’t the NCAA be apologizing to the kid for blowing up his whole season over something stupid like this? I know that there have been (and are) major excesses in college athletics, but can’t we make judgment calls, like “This is ok and that is not?” It always baffles me how the NCAA regulates college athletics. Good luck to you Dez.
Generally Speaking…
– I really hope that, as I said above, Tim Tebow is ok. It would be an absolute shame for him to be really messed up after an accidental knee to the head (and think about how bad his teammate, whose knee it was, feels.) My main concern is that college kids not be taken advantage of. The Gators looked pretty sluggish against LSU and you could argue that they aren’t even the best team in the Country right now (I actually said that on Monday.) The rest of their schedule is Arkansas, Miss. State, UGA, Vandy, South Carolina, FIU, and FSU. I hope they can take a few of these games off and Tim Tebow can get right…he’s such an exciting player (and a good kid) that I want to see him in full form come BCS time. (Maybe he can spend some time on the sidelines with the headset and clipboard before the SEC title game.)
– I think that we need to ask ourselves a couple questions. 1) How long before we take Boise State seriously? 2) How long before they make it impossible for the BCS to exclude them from the National Title hunt. IF they stay undefeated and only one other BCS-conference team is undefeated, shouldn’t Boise State play that other team in the BCS title game? I would hold out some hope, but an undefeated Auburn got left out a few years back and I think that’s a sign that the College Presidents don’t care as long as checks are being written. {Just to make things interesting…what if Cincinnati was still undefeated and no one else was? Would they get into the title game? Just food for thought.}
– How long can the Yankees go on a 3-man rotation? (Honestly, I picked against them earlier in the playoffs, but now I’m starting to believe they can steamroll anyone.) I saw that they were thinking about it and though I am not a Yankee fan, I like the idea. It’s totally old school to only run out 3 pitchers. I don’t care if it’s only a 7-game series; I really like it! I know the season is long and grueling, but wouldn’t this be a revolution in “modern” Baseball? Instead of having to hold onto some schlub 4th and 5th Starter clubs could invest in better bullpens (or put those schlubs in the bullpen and let them excel, because clearly they weren’t winning as starters.) I’m excited at the prospect that even one team might remotely consider the idea that they only really need 3 starters for any length of time.
– Did you know the Hockey season started? I had no idea. I admit that I should probably care more about Hockey than I do. I never had a “team” growing up (although I did enjoy Mario Lemieux’s Penguins in the early 90’s.) Plus, I really enjoyed watching the Penguins shock Detroit in Detroit to win the Cup. Maybe I should be a Penguins fan (hey, I can do this you know. Some people are Clippers fans…) Would you join me in a minor-Hockey-odyssey to see if I can care about Hockey for one season? I won’t take up much of your time, but I would like to do this experiment. Thanks…
Tune in on Friday for a look at Legarrette Blount’s situation, some College and NFL picks, and a look at how Oregon has risen above “the punch”.
