With the World Series history and the possibility of an NBA season never happening at all, America's favorite sport, football, took total center stage on both the collegiate and professional fronts this weekend.
In the NFL, with the Tampa Bay Bucs mired in mediocrity (although a .500 season wouldn't be bad, depending on your expectations of this extremely young and untested team playing a harder schedule than a year ago), football fans in Tampa (and not just Florida Gator grads) seem to have opted to now become fans of the Denver Broncos, because of their new starting quarterback, the Chosen One, Tim Tebow.
In Oakland yesterday, the Broncos were 8 1/2 point underdogs, but ended up stunning the Raiders, 31-17. And though his passing statistics weren't anything to write to Gainesville about, it was his running ability that made the difference - a running style that critics said he would never be able to pull off in the professional ranks where the players hit harder. In fact, some Raider defenders didn't seem up to the task of corralling Tebow (then again, the Raiders couldn't stop any Bronco running, as they got 298 yards on the ground, the most for them in over a decade), and the former Heisman Trophy winner brought home a second road victory in a row for the Denver fans.
For the second straight weekend, CBS affiliate WTSP in St. Petersburg chose to air a Bronco on local television in Tampa Bay (if it's between them and Miami, definitely a good choice). At the sports bar I attended last night, fans who were preoccupied with other games came alive when Tebow would run successfully for first downs, much less score touchdowns.
