With the Broncos winning six straight games and seven of eight under the leadership of Tim Tebow, one of Tebow’s pastors in Colorado has spoken to TMZ about the situation.
Let’s repeat that. A Colorado pastor has spoken to TMZ about Tim Tebow.
(Maybe that should be the headline.)
“It’s not luck,” Wayne Hanson of Summit Church in Colorado told TMZ. “Luck isn’t winning 6 games in a row. It’s favor. God’s favor.”
So God favors Aaron Rodgers three times as much? After all, the Packers have now won 19 in a row.
Hanson also attributes the victories to Tebow’s faith. Asked if Tebow would be playing so well if he weren’t a believer, Hanson said, “Of course not.”
The notion that God’s favor becomes a factor in sporting events implies that God favors those who win and ignores those who lose. And that’s why I’m always reluctant to suggest that winning and losing has any correlation to the will of God. There are good men, and bad men, on every team. Believers and non-believers. Saints and sinners.
But it remains God prerogative to act in whatever manner He chooses. Some would regard the mere fact that the issue has received so much attention as a sign that God is nudging Tebow toward a high degree of success as a way of getting more of us talking about God and whether and to what extent there may be a little Angels in the Outfield dynamic going on in Denver.
Like the Madden curse, at some point the buzz can influence behavior. Which possibly helps the Broncos win more games by causing Denver’s opponents to assume that some master plan ultimately will overcome whatever skills and talents they otherwise bring to the field of play.