Spent a month THERE one night...

Yesterday, I sat down to watch the NFL playoffs with 4 other very intelligent, strong women.  We got our pizza and wings and braced ourselves for the Steelers v. Broncos.  A few of the group didn’t much care for football, and a few weren’t fans of either team on the field.  I’m a Broncos fan.

But I am NOT a Tebow fan.  Actually, of the 5 young women sitting in my living room, NONE of us were Tebow fans; we despise him—and not because he’s a Christian.  That’s the most ridiculous argument I’ve heard.  As a quarterback, I think he’s horribly inconsistent.  As a Christian, he is (to quote SNL) way too in our faces about it, (which bothers/offends me as a theist who strongly believes in freedom of religion and protecting personal rights).  And as an inexperienced college boy, he was WAY too in my face about his stance on women’s rights.

I’ve struggled all season with that inner conflict.  I like the other players on the team, and I’m not yet willing to reject my team (Colorado native), but I really can’t bring myself to cheer for this kid.  And I knew that a playoff win would mean that this Tebow BS isn’t going away any time soon. 

But I couldn’t root for anybody.  As the five of us sat there, we couldn’t reach any decisions on what we were most against: rapists or anti-abortionists?  Those were our choices yesterday—a QB who blatantly has no respect for women (and who probably should have served time) and a QB who has obtrusively voiced his lack of respect for women’s rights in a Super Bowl ad when he was, what?  21 years old?   

What these two men bring out most in their fans is a disregard for women.  As my dear friend Liz pointed out, people who support(ed) Big Ben are victim-blamers.  And then you have Tebow fans, who both demand that Christianity be a part of EVERYTHING (and to Hell with anyone who disagrees) and sacrilize it at the same time. 

I love football.  But yesterday?  The theme seemed to be that women and football don’t mix.