Inevitably, a Tebow backlash has emerged.
And it’s coming from another AFC quarterback whose team is better, whose numbers are better, but who badly trails Tebow in the AFC fan Pro Bowl voting.
“I mean, look at Tim Tebow,” Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco told WNST radio in Baltimore, via NFL.com. “I like Tim, but you have a tendency to want to — I don’t want to see Tim do bad — but look what happens after he wins a football game. If you watched SportsCenter today, it was Tim Tebow then something else, Tim Tebow then something else, and Tim Tebow then something else. When we beat the Steelers, were we on TV? No. I couldn’t even find a Baltimore Ravens highlight. I think that’s kinda the way it is around Baltimore. We don’t always get our respect but you gotta deal with it and go out there every week and just win football games.”
Flacco believes the Ravens are “disrespected” by the national media. “The bottom line is we don’t need a lot of help because we have a great fan base every week and we win football games,” Flacco said. “We’re not a losing football team that needs to be out there in the media and be talked up like we are all-world. We are.”
Flacco is right. But media coverage is driven by the interest level from fans. Nationally, folks want to hear about Tebow. They aren’t as interested in Flacco.
Really, fans aren’t interested in many/any quarterbacks not named Tebow — including the defending Super Bowl MVP and inevitable 2011 regular-season MVP who is having one of the best seasons of any quarterback in league history.
The difference? Aaron Rodgers is using the slight as motivation for things he does on the field, not things he says off it.