Castrodale: I truly want to believe ... in Tebow

He's not just a God-fearing QB with bad mechanics and a verb for a name: he's a playoff winner

Jeff Gross / Getty Images

Tim Tebow is the first Heisman Trophy-snagging quarterback since Carson Palmer to rack up a winning record in his second year as a starter.

OPINION

updated 1:00 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2012

Jelisa Castrodale

For nine seasons on The X-Files, Fox Mulder, the FBI?s in-house alien chaser, kept the same poster tacked in his office, one with a grainy shot of an Ed Wood-ish flying saucer hovering above the words ?I Want to Believe.?

Mulder knew the truth was out there ? another of the show?s official slogans ? and spent the better part of the '90s trying to prove it. I have that poster in my office and, for the duration of this NFL season, I?ve considered taping Tim Tebow?s lightly bearded face to the top of the UFO. For me, the motto is the same: I Want to Believe.

I want to believe the AFC wild-card game was real, that the still-smoldering wreckage of my overworked Twitter timeline really was because Tebow led the Broncos to a 29-23 overtime win.

I want to believe Tebow finally did it, that he finally put together a four-quarter-and-11-second performance that didn?t need an index of excuses, explanations or a ?Yes, but ?.? He was 10 for 21 for 316 yards and two touchdowns, and added 10 carries for 50 more yards and a rushing TD. His game-winning scoring pass to Demaryius Thomas put them in the record books with the longest pass (80 yards) and shortest overtime (11 seconds) in playoff history.

(And forget Tebow for a second. The Broncos? most impressive left arm was the one that Thomas planted in Steelers CB Ike Taylor?s sternum. Freddy Krueger didn?t get burned as bad as Taylor did Sunday.)

?I have great teammates, and they make me look a lot better than I am,? Tebow told NFL.com?s Stacey Dales after the game.

Maybe. But after Sunday, Tebow and his orange and blue teammates have four overtime victories and more comebacks than the McRib.?

Tebow has become the first Heisman-snagging quarterback since Carson Palmer to rack up a winning record in his second year as a starter, and no other Heisman QB ? not Palmer, not Plunkett, not Staubach ? took his team to the playoffs in their sophomore season. (Although Staubach did win a Super Bowl in Year 3. Your move, Tim.) And No. 15 now has the same number of career playoff wins as Mark Bulger, Jay Cutler and Tony Romo ? with one more than Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford.

I want to believe we can stop talking about Tebow?s throwing motion. Yes, he has ridiculous mechanics and sometimes his passes drift and wobble like the Rugrats balloons on the Macy?s parade route. But what he lacks in technique, he makes up in film study and practice time. He knows his limitations and, for the most part, gets the most out of his inefficient left arm.?

I want to believe Tebow has finally pressed the mute button on his critics, on everyone from the Chicago Bears to Bill Maher to Merril Hoge, who spent the first four months of the season tearing into Tebow like Grendel with an oversized Windsor knot.

What Hoge didn?t notice while he was busy frothing at the mouth was that Tebow?s numbers are comparable to the NFL?s other second-year quarterbacks. His passer rating is better than St. Louis' Sam Bradford and Arizona?s John Skelton and he?s ranked 28th to Colt McCoy?s 27th. (But Hoge has a point about completion percentage: Tebow's 46.5 percent in the regular season ranks below Skelton, Bradford, every other starting quarterback, the linoleum in the team laundry room and the chubby kid in the NFL Play 60 commercials).

BUT STILL: Tebow has helped Denver double its win total from last season and make its first postseason appearance since 2005. I want to believe that?s enough.?

I want to believe everyone else will believe, too, not in Tebow the Lucky Religious Rabbit?s Foot or Tebow the Allegory or Tebow(ing) the Action Verb. Tim Tebow is no longer a novelty. He?s a playoff-winning quarterback, one who will be packing his cable knit beanie and his Norelco beard trimmer for a trip to Foxboro.?

The Broncos already are nearly two-touchdown underdogs to the No. 1 seed Patriots, the same Patriots that already dismantled Denver once this season. There?s a chance it could happen again, that the clock ticking toward Tebow Time might be helplessly blinking 12:00 by halftime.

But ? until then ? I want to believe.

And I will.

Jelisa Castrodale has learned a lot about life by making a mess of her own. Read more at jelisacastrodale.com, follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/gordonshumway, or contact her at

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