Jason Whitlock/ Tim Tebow...O Father Where Art Thou?

Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos from Foxsports.com

I'll admit it, I am drinking the Kool-Aid. I believe Tim Tebow to be one of the greatest and most needed sports stories in decades, if not ever. And not just because he too is a virgin :-D, but because he stands so steadfastly beside and for his beliefs in God, and has done so as long as I've personally known him to exist.


I am not a new convert or anything, I've been on his bandwagon since his first leeping TD Pass into imfamy at Florida while sharing QB duty with eventual BCS-National Champion MVP Chris Leek. I've loved what he has stood for, and moaned in defeat everytime he beat up on UGA. But what he has done to the sports landscape over these past few weeks has been nothing short of a miracle in my book. It's not his talent , but rather his intangibles that are what driving everyone nuts, and I for one jump for joy. It is quite clear that this guy on his own isn't worthy of shining the shoes of John Elway, but come the 4th quarter...with 9 minutes or less on the clock, and his numbers put Elway's to shame. And it is all unexplainable, even to the hardiest of football purists like Steve Young, Stephen A Smith, and Cris Carter, who just weeks earlier laughed at the idea of Tebow being able to sustain this type of success at the NFL level.

But after the amazing come back win over the vaunted Bears defense, many have jumped on board the Tebow train, and given him his props. The remaining skeptics and critics point to the numbers(QBR), or point to his overly hyped religious views as reason to be wary of the guy. Those that have capitulated of late usually also point to the numbers(W/L) and his steadfast religious views as reason to watch his every move...well everyone but Whitlock that is. In an article that I only recently read, Whitlock claims that it is Tebow's stable home environment that is the reason for his success, and not the Good Lord. I'm not quite sure how he was able to divorce those two seeing as Tebow's Dad and Mom are Missionaries to the Philippines...but you know, don't let the truth ruin a good story, right Whitlock? LOL

Anywho....Whitlock's assertion about Tebow's home life is basically this, he grew up in a home where both his Father and Mother were present, and thus he learned how to lead men from his Dad, whereas many Black Athletes from single-family homes have not had the same opportunity, and thus flounder in the role of QB(Vince Young and Mike Vick) and in life in general because of this.

It's not the first time that Whitlock has made such assertions, and I'm sure it won't be his last. And while I hate that he couldn't give God credit, where credit was and is certainly due, I cannot deny that Whitlock has a point. A point that he, Michael Irvin, and Dr. Harry Edwards, discuss in the Foxsports.com special "Connected".

Why this special did not get more attention...I'll never know, but the focus and surprising candor of these males was actually a breath of fresh air, where now-a-days too many of us (Blacks) pandor to the it's not our fault mantra of what is happening to our youth.

Not too long ago I actually sat with an esteemed Black activist about how to help our youth, and he wailed on and on about the culture of rap and its influence on our Black youth. And while I agreed, I went a step further and said that the culture of rap is only able to infiltrate so intenseley our young black males because there isn't another Black male to fill in the gap in most cases. He told me that I had been drinking the Kool-Aid that Whites were handing out on TV. He flat out told me, that the lack of men in the homes of over 74% of our youth had NOTHING to do with their incarceration record, or hero worship of the rapper and pro-athlete. That the break-up of the Black family was White people's fault and that they were now providing propaganda to further instigate the situation.

I was so stunned I almost forgot how to speak...for a nanosecond...before I  hit upon the very hypocrisy of such a statement.

How is it possible that we bemoan and begrudge a people for breaking up our nuclear homes, and then have the nerve to say that the lack of 1/2 of the parental unit has nothing to do with the increase in poverty, incarceration and decline in education and opportunity for our Black youth...particularly males.

Are we so proud and have such hubris that we cannot admit that our young men need their fathers??? That they need a strong, stable male presence in their lives...in their homes????

It is amazing to me, that we will accept that a lack of good men in a young Black girl's life will harm her...see Li'l Wayne' "How to Love" video. And then in the very next breath assert that Black men don't need their father's to turn into positive members of our  society. They don't need the attention or bond of their father's to grow into good Black men. Nope, a strong Black Single Mother will suffice just fine for him...and when he turns into a Mamma's Boy, a philanderer or turns to White women, then we'll castrate him by calling him "weak" and not "man enough" to handle a real Black woman....Backwards much???

If little girls learn how they should be treated by their Father's, then wouldn't it figure that little boys learn how to treat their future girlfriends and wives by looking at how their Dad treats their Mom? Shouldn't this be obvious? If so then why do we in the Black community fight this truth so heartily???? And I should add, that we may be the only subsection of any culture that actually fights this....

I am in no way saying that strong Black men cannot be raised in a single family environment, I personally know that to be false. But I am also asserting that at some point men must learn to be men from other men. They cannot learn from a woman, no matter how many masculine traits she brings to the table. At some point a man will want to and need to test his mettle against another man, in whom he respects and wants to be just like. Without this presence in the home, a man will turn to the streets, to gangs, to athletics or to anything or anyone that seems to look like they know the way to true Manhood. He will become susceptible to Society and all that they tell him he must look like, walk like and dress like in order to be the man he wishes to be seen as.

With a good man in the home, society takes a backseat to the reality of the man that the man will see, feel and be around everyday. This man will then be the yardstick by which these young men will measure their adult lives by, not Jay-Z or Kanye, and not even TIm Tebow....but their own Fathers.