Tim Tebow (Getty Images)
AMEN! Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch mimics Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (inset) after Tulloch sacked Tebow during the Lions’ 45-10 rout in Denver on Sunday. Tebow said he wasn’t offended by the action. (Getty Images (inset) and AP)
DENVER — You won’t find Tim Tebow among the critics of the Lions for mocking the NFL’s most polarizing player last Sunday.
In his first comments since controversy bloomed over the conduct of Detroit players Stephen Tulloch and Tony Scheffler toward him in a 45-10 win over the Broncos, Tebow shrugged it off yesterday and said he didn’t consider it an attack on his religion.
As always seems to be the case with Tebow, Tulloch drew cheers and outrage for bowing his head as if praying after sacking him early in the Lions’ rout on Sunday. Scheffler, an ex-Bronco, did the same motion later in the game after scoring.
Tulloch said he merely was mimicking an Internet fad called “Tebowing” and meant no harm, but that didn’t keep him from getting savaged by an ESPN columnist and barraged with hateful messages from Tebow’s cult-like fans on Twitter.
Tebow refused to join the crowd, however, saying he holds no grudge against Tulloch or the Lions.
“Obviously, you don’t know somebody’s intentions, so I won’t judge what he did,” Tebow said yesterday at his weekly news conference. “He was probably just having fun and was excited he made a good play and had a sack. And good for him. He was just celebrating and having fun with his teammates, and I don’t take offense at that. I was more bothered I gave up the sack and didn’t break the tackle.”
The Lions might not have been mocking Tebow’s religion, but according to Yahoo! Sports, they certainly were mocking his quarterback skills after he completed just 18 of 39 passes for 172 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the Detroit blowout.
According to Yahoo!, an unidentified player said: “Can you believe [Tebow]?” Come on — that’s embarrassing. I mean, it’s a joke. … We were like, ‘Come on — that’s your quarterback? Seriously?’ ”
Tebow claimed he “hadn’t really heard about” the vicious quote, then said it was no big deal when parts of it were relayed to him during his weekly news conference.
“Honestly, I don’t take offense from that,” said Tebow, whose unorthodox throwing style and woeful 48.1-percent completion rate make him a frequent target of skeptics.
“I’ll just take what I learned from that [loss] and try to get better from it.
“You can’t listen to what other people say, because you’re going to have people that praise you and people that criticize you.”
Tebow added that any criticism is fine with him as long as it’s based on what happens on the field.
“It could be personal for some people, but if it is, that would be somewhat disappointing,” he said.
Broncos coach John Fox, who rather shakily announced Monday that Tebow would remain the starter for Sunday’s trip to Oakland, didn’t discuss his quarterback yesterday. John Elway, now Denver’s executive VP of football operations, conveniently was out of town scouting — at Stanford, home of QB phenom Andrew Luck — and was not made available to comment by the team.
But guard Zane Beadles stuck up for Tebow, saying the anonymous criticism was out of line.
“He’s in the NFL, isn’t he?” Beadles said. “That’s just a dumb thing to say. He’s our starter and he’s our quarterback, and we still have Tim’s back. He’s obviously young and inexperienced, but I don’t have any reason to believe he won’t be successful.”