Tebowmania is crazy. It never ends, and gets stronger and picks up new followers each week.  Then there are the people who knew him for awhile, or got acquainted with him at some point down the road.

Brainless Urlachers' postgame thoughts on Tebow: "He's a good running back." OK, sure. Let's go with that. Everybody can believe that heading into the game with Tebow. That spurred me to think of what other people would say when asked about Tebow after his most recent miracle.

So here's what everybody else has to say (note: this is realistic fiction, because I can totally picture these guys saying this about Tebow).

Former Florida Gators and now Ohio State Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer

I'm just real proud of Tim, and what he's doing, I knew he could do it and I'm so proud of him for saving me while I was taking my nap. It goes to show you, with good coaching he puts up 50 points, and with bad or no coaching he just finds a way to win games.

ESPN Analyst Merril Hoge

I don't care how much he wins. He needs to get better. Period. He needs better mechanics, or he won't succeed. Winning isn't succeeding. Looking good is succeeding. I'd rather he have Tom Brady's mechanics and go 2-14 than have Tim Tebow flailing wildly and making the playoffs. Looking like a real QB is all that matters, not winning. I refuse to budge.

Former Florida State Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden

The dadgum guy just wins. He must have gotten that from the dadgum garnet paint that was smeared on his jersey in the 2008 game against us. I'm happy for the kid that our end zone paint and winning rubbed off on him, dadgummit.

Rapper Kanye West

(Jumping onstage and grabbing the microphone at the Emmys) Imma let you finish, but first I gotta say Tim Tebow is the best QB of ALL TIME. ALL TIME. All he does is win win win no matter what, got Jesus on his mind, haters never get enough, but all he does is win, win, win, and if haters don't like that they can go jump off a bridge!

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan

He can't play. He didn't do anything so spectacular. If I never give credit to anybody and instead talk trash, why give Tebow anything? Bible Boy can't do anything right but run for two yards. Now excuse me, I've got to go see the doctor about my foot fetish.

Comedian Daniel Tosh

He's terrible. But what do I know? I'm a comedian, not a football analyst. That's because my football analysis is so off base, it's funny. I can admit when I'm wrong. I'm just a little depressed after he owned my Dolphins. That's all. He's great. (HE SUCKS.) I don't know what I'm saying. Maybe I should just stick to comedy.

Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban

I'd considered asking Roger Goodell to allow the Alabama Crimson Tide into the NFL, since you know, that's where all my guys wind up anyway. Then I watched Tim Tebow against Chicago. I immediately called up my boss and told him forget it. The guy's won 6 straight games, he's pissed off, and he's pissed off at MY TEAM. That's a bad combination. Forget it. Not happening.

Temple Owls coach Steve Addazio

Dive dive dive dive dive dive... what? Dude, I'm on a recruiting trip. I've got these twins, nationally ranked 9th grade swimmers, who could really help my dive program. Their names are Ashley and Sarah and they are both interested in diving (into brick walls, but I haven't told them that yet, that's a surprise for later) for four years. And you want me to comment on Tebow? OK, fine. He's doing OK, but he'd be better if he just ran the dive more. OK? Happy now?

Baylor Bears QB Robert Griffin III

Well, I guess I've got to throw out the Broncos gear John Elway secretly sent me.

Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton

He may be able to run with and throw the pigskin well against big, nasty defenses like the best of them, but can he run with and throw the laptop against big, nasty security guards like the best of them- like me?

ESPN Analyst Mel Kiper

Whatever, I don't care anymore. ESPN just paid me to bash him for an offseason, and that offseason is over. Onto doing research on how Andrew Luck will be a bigger bust than JaMarcus Russell.

Kansas coach Charlie Weis

Ehhh... he doesn't eat enough cheeseburgers for me to invest in him.

There was one person, on the other hand, that didn't completely smash Tebow's name. In fact, he praised Tebow. He gave the impression it was an honor to watch him playHe seems to know a fair bit about the game, based on his past credentials and resume. He may not be able to pull out ridiculous comebacks week in and week out like Tebow, but he's one of the game's greatest of all time: New England Patriots QB Tom Brady.

Tim Tebow was on his knees on the Denver sideline, part of a chain of Bronco players that were holding hands and looking at the ground on the sideline at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. He couldn't watch, not after so much else go wrong during the course of the game.

Maybe he should have peeked.

After all, he missed the kick that turned his 2011 debut into a success- and possibly officially resurrected his career.

Matt Prater made that kick after missing a pair of field goals in regulation and Denver won 18-15 in OT, capping off a furious comeback by the former Gators star QB on a day the Gators 2008 National Championship team was honored at halftime.

But it wasn't all pretty.

In fact, it was uglier than a Georgia Bulldogs football game for 3 and a half quarters.

With Urban Meyer and a bunch of former teammates in attendance, Tebow got off to a Georgia type start, going 4-14 for 40 yards. He did have a youtube worthy 21 yard scramble, but it was his lone highlight. He continued to play like he was wearing a UGA uniform, throwing wounded ducks that landed no better than four feet away from his receiver, holding the ball too long and getting sacked, and even fumbling once, something that happened once in a blue moon at UF.

So with under 6 minutes to play, and the Broncos trailing 15-0, Jim Rome had his anti-Tebow script all written out, and was simply looking for which tie he wanted to wear when he bashed Tebow the next time his B-rated show aired.

Merril Hoge had already turned the game off, and was already thinking of which fancy restaurant to give some of his well earned money from ESPN (for being the network buffoon) in exchange for a nice dinner. Even he gets bored sometimes.

Mel Kiper was actually busy breaking down last night's Michigan State-Wisconsin and Texas Tech-Oklahoma games (amazing finishes in both games, might I add) with the same scholarly approach that he tore Tebow down with, but then he saw the score and smirked.

Joke's on you, clowns.

Tebow then engineered one of the most incredible comebacks in recent memory, driving the Broncos all the way for a touchdown on a beautiful throw to a receiver, that, as Nick Saban would say, wasn't friggin open. DeMaryius Thomas made a great move to find some separation, but fell. Tebow then tossed it right on the money and Thomas caught it as he fell.

So with the score 15-7 Broncos with 2 and a half minutes to play, John Fox elected to go for the onside kick- and got it. Tebow then directed a second touchdown drive, that ended when he took a step to the left, then lobbed it back to Dan Fells on the right side. Fells caught it and went in for the touchdown as Miami players just shook their heads, victims of a perfectly executed screen play that would have suckered the Baltimore Ravens.

But it was still 15-13. Denver still needed the two point conversion. So Tebow then did what he did best as a Gator- he plowed into the end zone to tie the game at 15.

So the game went into overtime.

Each team punted, and then the Broncos defense forced a fumble. Matt Prater came on and booted the clutch field goal through the uprights to even Tebow's record to 2-2 as a starter.

The haters and morons (really, that's the same group of people) see the game as "Tebow got lucky", "Why were they struggling against a winless team in the first place", and finally, "Tebow's still horrible".

Those people can go (insert your profane and offensive phrase of choice HERE).

Honestly? I see the game as an instant replay of Florida-Arkansas 2009, minus the bad calls against the Razorbacks (let's be honest, Ramon Broadway did NOT interfere with Deonte Thompson... and the unnecessary roughness was BS... but of course as a Gator fan I will take it).

Tebow did not play well. Nor did his teammates. Everybody was talking about Tebow's issues, since he was a senior and the talk had already begun about whether he could make it as an NFL QB. Gary Danielson made one specific comment when Arkansas defensive lineman Jake Bequette stripped Tebow that made me nod in sad agreement: "That's going to be a problem." It was. It gave Arkansas a free field goal- one of the many freebies the Gators handed the Hogs that day.

But late in the game, the Gators offense came alive. Tebow directed the tying drive (with the aforementioned referee assistance) and later the winning drive (with no ref assistance). He shook off what was an otherwise horrible day and got the win.

And so my hat goes off to you, Tim. You haven't played perfect football, but you've done everything in your power to get the win.

There's been so much talk about Tebow, as you know, about his issues and his potential problems he would have in the pros because of them. One thing that's been kind of quiet- no, sorry, more like SILENT or COMPLETELY UNMENTIONED- is the fact that he's a winner.

He wins games.

Sure, it was only an 0-6 Miami team, but Tebow found a way to win the game.

He's a winner, always was, and always will be, and no amount of trash spewed by haters can change that.

Broncos 18, Dolphins 15.

And Tebow scored both touchdowns.

Chomp on that, haters.

Imagine for a moment that there were a team in the NFL that was 3-10 entering week 14 of the season.  Now imagine that they had recently fired their head coach, and the QB play out of their starter in the last two weeks looked like this:

Now, continuing with this completely hypothetical situation, let's pretend that an unnamed rookie QB drafted within the first 2 rounds were asked to step into this situation for the next three games.  Rookie QBs already almost universally struggle in their first season, and this is far from an ideal situation to be walking into.  Now, let's pretend that the numbers he put up in these three games looked as follows:

Given this scenario, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that the rookie should be starting the next game, and the media would be jumping all over him as if he's a lock to be the next big thing in the NFL.

Unless his name was Tim Tebow...

As I'm sure most people reading this site already know, that is in fact the exact situation that Tim Tebow walked into last year, and those are in fact the exact numbers he put up in his first 3 starts as a pro.  Sure, they're not world beating, set the league on fire stats, but for a rookie making his first three starts as a pro they are quite good.  Yet, while any other quarterback would be the unquestioned starter going forward and have an aura of support in the media (imagine the hubbub there would have been around a guy like Matt Stafford if he'd started his career that way), Tebow gets blurbs about how he is competing for the #4 job on the depth chart and gets hit with verbal lashings like "what has he done to deserve the starting spot" and "sorry, you can't live on your entitlement anymore, you have to earn it".

Some theorize that it's one giant media conspiracy to tear down Tebow.  I find that to be over the top.  It's not as if ESPN called together some giant corporate meeting where they all discussed how they can ridicule Tebow.

What we actually have here is a little effect that I like to call "media bandwagoning", which has also extended to "fan perspective bandwagoning".  Saying that Tim Tebow is not a good quarterback or that he's not ready to play in the NFL has become the "cool" thing to say.  It's almost as if, in order to prove that you're an "expert" and not just some casual fan, you have to lambast Tebow and cite all these traditional things that he doesn't do well.  It's the same reason that many media folks who were praising Tebow at the end of last season now speak as if he couldn't quarterback a PeeWee football team right now even though they've barely seen him play at all in the interim.  When they haven't really even seen him play since they were saying "wow, maybe this guy really can be a good NFL QB" a few months ago, how could their opinions have changed so much?

In this way, Tebow's own popularity has hurt him.  It has become accepted as fact that the only reason that Tebow has supporters is because of how loved he is off the field, and not because of his accomplishments on the field.  Tebow bashers look down on Tebow supporters as guppies that can't get past how good of a guy he is and see his oh so obvious flaws, when in reality it is them that can't see past their own old and irrelevant perceptions as to what a quarterback has to be.

Those people look at Tebow's draft position and say he would have been a 4th round pick were it not for one misguided coach, who is now out of a job, that took him way too early.  Their short term (or perhaps self-correcting) memory is incapable of remembering that Tebow was projected as a late 1st/early 2nd round draft pick even when no one thought he would end up in Denver.  In fact, I looked through every "expert mock" I could find from Scott Wright to Mike Mayock to Mel Kiper to a dozen others.  The latest anyone had him going was 44th overall and no one had him going to Denver, which means that even without McDaniels, they all believed he was set to be picked in that range anyhow.

Those people look at Tebow's throwing motion and see a guy that can't get the ball out quick enough to hit NFL passing windows, and are incapable of separating their purely speculative theories from actual reality.  No matter the fact that it had no effect on him hitting those windows when he actually stepped onto the field (or the fact that Brett Favre never had an issue hitting them even though he drops the ball even lower than Tebow does), it sounds logical in their head so it must be true.  Evidence be damned.

Among these folks are Tebow's own coach, John Fox, who seems so content to disregard actual on the field play in favor of how good or ugly something looks in practice that it took him three years to finally decide that DeAngelo Williams was a better running back than DeShaun Foster.

Look, Tebow has not looked good in practice.  I get that.  But it seems that Denver as well as the media seem to be operating under the very poor assumption that Tebow has to look like a perfectly oiled machine in practice to perform well in games.  That just isn't the type of quarterback that Tebow is, nor is it the type that he ever was.  He never has nor is he ever going to look like a prototype quarterback with great footwork, great mechanics, and bullet-proof accuracy in practice and if that is what Denver is waiting for then they'll be waiting forever.  He didn't have those things at Florida either, while John Brantley did, and we saw how that translated to the actual field of play.

If Denver wants to give Tebow one more year to learn, I'm ok with that, so long as they spend the year working on his true weakness (reading defenses), and not his perceived one.  I don't believe he needs another year, but it's worked well in the past for guys like Rodgers and Rivers.  What I have a problem with is this notion that it is now common knowledge that Tebow is a horrible quarterback.

In a way, you really have to feel bad for Tebow.  Sure, it's tough to feel bad for a guy who has millions of fans, millions of dollars, gets to do what he loves for a living, and could probably have any girl he wanted.  But with Tebow you have a guy who has succeeded at every level when stepping out onto the football field, time after time, and yet the universal opinion of him is still that he stinks as a quarterback.  It just has to eat the kid up inside that so many negative things are said about him and he just can't get out there to once again prove people wrong because of the stigma that polish is more important than production.

I think one of my favorite moments from this preseason was listening to the broadcast early on in Denver's week 1 game, as the broadcaster recounted just how awful Tim Tebow looked when he's seen him throwing around, and how he "couldn't even complete passes against air".  He stopped juuuuust short of saying that Dez Bryant would make a better quarterback than Tim Tebow.  As Tebow came into the game and went 6/7 throwing the ball he could do nothing but pick apart his mechanics, which just like Merril Hoge's now infamous report, was nothing more than regurgitated internet lingo that he was passing off as his own ideas.  Sure, those passes came against a second string defense, but surely Dallas' 2nd string defensive backs are better defenders than air, right?

That brings me to my final point.  Remember those stats that I showed you of Tebow earlier?  There are analysts out there that actually have the gall to claim they were indicative of a poor performance because of the 50% completion percentage, and use it as an example of Tebow's allegedly very poor accuracy.  Let's ignore that most rookie QBs have a poor completion percentage in their first few starts (Tebow's was not abnormally low) and really examine this deeper.

The number I want you to keep in mind here is 8.0.  That was Tebow's YPA in those three starts.  For the sake of reference, both Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have each only eclipsed that number in one season out of their entire careers.  Mind you, I'm not using this to say that Tebow performed better than either of them, but rather to demonstrate to you the kind of passes that Tebow was throwing in those games.  Denver's defense was terrible, and as a result Denver spent much of those games throwing downfield.  As should make sense to anyone (especially a football analyst, which these guys claim to be), passes downfield are completed at a lower rate.  Tebow's yards per completion during those starts was an astounding 16.0.  For comparison, Peyton Manning's last year was 10.2.  It makes sense that Tebow's completion percentage was low (again even if we discount that he was a rookie making his first three starts), because Denver was throwing the ball deep an inordinate amount.  Tebow's completion percentage has always been high when he's played outside of "oh crap our defense sucks we'd better chuck it downfield every play" situations.

Tebow is seen as a guy with very poor accuracy because, in practice, he can't laser in 15 yard in-routes with 95% success.  Fortunately, there's a lot more to throwing accuracy than that, which is a fact that seems to be lost on many coaches, scouts, and analysts.  Many of these folks differentiate between "accuracy" and "touch", and my question is simply, "why?".  They're the same thing.  "Touch" is just another form of accuracy.  For instance, Cam Newton is seen as having adequate accuracy for the NFL, but he has poor "touch".  If he can't complete a pass over the top of the linebackers because it requires putting touch on the pass then that is poor accuracy.  They're the same thing, and "touch", or as I call it "vertical accuracy" is something that Tebow excels at, and is the reason that Urban Meyer was willing to let him throw a 30 yard go route down the sideline to Louis Murphy on a key 3rd and short late in the 2009 SEC Title game.

Tim Tebow is what he is.  He's a gamer who plays exponentially better in game situations than he does in simulated practices.  He's a guy that makes things happen on the field with a wide collection of talents rather than with precision accuracy or sound mechanics.  And last I checked, when Tebow threw that 50 yard bomb in week one of the preseason that hit his receiver in stride, they didn't take back half the yardage because his mechanics were ugly on the throw.