I do not think the content (Tebow) nor the timing (Sam) caused their respective controversies with the NFL and its collective, breathless professional commentariat. If you reversed the issues, changed the topics completely or had them each hocking anti-aging socks, the NFL would have retreated to its fainting couch. Remember this is a League that thought less of Manziel when he wore his new line of workout gear from Nike to his Pro Day. Camo shorts?!
In the case of the wider world of news, news commentary and nightly cable "news" apocalypse-is-nigh programming, both topics and causes caused a predictable storm and backlash. Each side felt slighted and tried to portray itself as the plucky, misunderstood underdog. But Tebow's people were smart enough to finish up before the draft, where his ad did not end up hurting his stock.
Sam had picked a project that would run smack dab into the middle of football prep, so that unlike Tebow or other athletes with offseason, non-football pursuits, he would actually be actively participating in the dreaded distraction, rather than be done with it.
To bring this back round to the original point, being a left-wing hero (one of bobble's points) isn't earning Sam a pass here. He got blasted by the same distraction police Tebow did. The outside world freaked out according to Hoyle in each case (if they hadn't, the point of being on TV -a large audience- is lost). The success of each effort was largely a reflection of their timing, not the support base.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by pbmax
