Did Meyer do the Right Thing?
October 12, 2009 by Jim Folsom
Filed under The Nosebleeds
Many pundits have criticized Urban Meyer for allowing Tim Tebow to play against LSU on Saturday. These “medical experts” cite the danger that may have occurred had Tebow taken a shot to the head. Some mentioned the fact that a second concussion could have led to him suffering memory loss later in life. So what good does it do to have your memory later in life, if what you have to remember is sitting on the sidelines?
Was Meyer wrong for starting Tebow?
These idiot sportswriters don’t care if Florida goes undefeated and wins the National Championship again this year. They don’t have to live with it for the rest of their lives. Tim Tebow does. He puts his every waking hour into it. And he has been ever since he announced last January he was coming back for his senior year. He also has about 100 teammates who also put in every waking hour towards it. Do you think maybe he has a responsibility to them? There are scores of grumpy old broken down football players who hurt everywhere because of the punishment they inflicted on themselves and others during their playing days. Do you think they would trade one minute of it to feel better now? I doubt it.
It’s like the guy in the ad says to the race car driver when he asks if putting an ad across his windshield is safe, “you drive around at over 200 miles an hour, so you’ve made some choices…” Tim Tebow broke his leg playing high school football. Now most of us, had we broke a leg doing something, we wouldn’t do it anymore. How many times have you heard someone say something like “I used to ski but I had to give it up.” You ask why and they say “I broke my leg.” Tim Tebow has made choices. He plays a game and will make it his profession, where big men crash into each other. If he’s afraid of his quality of life when he’s an old man, then maybe he should do something else. How many of us would trade our old age to be Tim Tebow for one day? What if the day you got to be Tim was last Saturday, in Baton Rouge? You were going to play for the #1 team in the nation against #4 at their home field in front of 93,000 screaming fans. I would.
Still hoping for undefeated season
This is Tim Tebow’s senior year. Although the Gators won’t come out and say it publicly, they really want this undefeated season. That was what his famous apology was all about last year! What was the first thing he said after “I’m sorry”? He said “our goal was to go undefeated. It’s something that Florida’s never done.” Well guess what? This is his last shot. How would he feel the rest of his life had he sat on the bench after being told by doctors, REAL doctors that he was ok to play, and watched that dream die? An undefeated season is like your virginity. Once it’s gone, you can’t get it back.
Of course the undefeated season is also gone for about 100 other guys too. At some point you are going to be so old you won’t remember it anyway. That is, if you live that long. So what? That’s life. Bobby Allison won the Daytona 500 in 1982 with his son Davey on his rear bumper. He doesn’t remember any of it. He had a crash a year later and sustained a severe head injury. Is it sad that he can’t recall perhaps the biggest day of his career? Sure it is. Would it be better had that Daytona 500 never happened? He may not remember it, but he has the trophy. He has the tape. He has the newspapers. He has all of us to remind him that he won it. He knows he won it. Isn’t that better than remembering someone else won it?
Urban Meyer is a football coach. He is not a doctor. Who is he to play doctor? Who is he to tell Tim Tebow and the rest of his players, this is what you will remember the rest of your lives? You’ll remember your unbeaten season go down the drain because I don’t want Tebow to possibly have memory loss when he’s old. How could he tell his players ever again to give it all they have for “four to six seconds”? How could he ever again give his “sixty minutes to remember for the rest of your lives” speech? OK maybe you won’t remember it the very last part, but is that a reason not to do it at all?
|
About Jim: Thank you to the senior class of 2009! |
Related posts:
Gator Nation Worthy?
1 
0
It’s not even so much that he wouldn’t remember it. The part that kills me about these naysayers is that the chance is so small, and is the same whether he got a concussion before or not, that it is negligible. He has more of a chance of blowing out his knee in practice than he does of getting another concussion, but you don’t see people yelling that he needs knee braces.
Ignore the detractors. They look best in the reflection of your crystal trophies anyways.
Gator Nation Worthy?
1 
0
Gregg Doyel at CBS Sports and the rest of these hacks lambasting Coach Meyer for playing Tim Tebow are only showing off, trying to attract an audience – and not much more.
If Tebow wasn’t medically cleared to play, we would have seen Johnny Brantley starting. Meyer isn’t the type to take unnecessary risks just for the sake of winning a football game.
And as far as the media goes, screw them as far as I’m concerned.
Gator Nation Worthy?
0 
0
The Daytona 500 I mentioned was acyually in 1988. Allison won three of them and I believe 1982 was one of them, but the one where his son finished right behind him was 1988. And he still has no memory of it.