I have an orange and blue tie that I like to wear, but being an Indianapolis Colts fan, it never entered my mind that it matched the colors of the Chicago Bears until some Bears fans at my church ruined it for me with that information a while back.  However, today I am a Bears fan, too.

Here’s why.  The legendary former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka was recently on a sports radio show in which the host brought up the Eagles recent hiring of the well known Christian, Tim Tebow, in the preseason and giving him another shot in the NFL as a quarterback.  The host apparently thought he might get the burly coach to dismiss this as a foolhardy move. The reaction he got from Ditka was probably not what he expected.

Coach Ditka:  “You see, now you’re talking to the wrong guy. If I were coaching in the NFL today, I’d acquire Tim Tebow, and find a place to use him in certain situations on my football team. Guys like Tim Tebow are good for sports, good for football and good for our country.  He’s got character and you can’t buy character.  A lot of people act like they have it, but they don’t have it when it comes down to the nitty gritty.”
 
Radio Host:   “Well I’m a Tebow fan too, and I agree with you on the character standpoint but it’s kind of hard to find a spot for character on a 46-man active roster, unless the guy can contribute.  That’s sort of where the rub is don’t you think?”
 
Coach Ditka:  “There’s always a place on your football team for character. You’re going to have a lot of spots where you don’t have that character, so you better have enough that you can overlap it.  
 
I am not saying you can win a championship with a guy who is a marginal passer, but again, I think he has the talent . . . It is not a popularity contest, guys. There are always guys we like or don’t like, I understand that, but when you start disliking people for the wrong reasons you’ve got the real problem.

The NFL is celebrating the sexual equivalent of a brain concussion by going gaga over Michael Sam’s sexual proclivities.

As I predicted on my radio show, the NFL pressured somebody into drafting the out-of-the-closet Sam, whose combine performance revealed that he is not big enough and strong enough to play defensive line in the NFL and not fast enough and quick enough to play linebacker. In other words, if he were not an open practitioner of the infamous crime against nature, he wouldn’t have gotten drafted at all.

His coming out, as they say, was a good career move. He apparently was shrewd enough to know his own limitations, and shrewd enough to know that the NFL wouldn’t dare not to draft him if he made a huge deal out of his sexual preference. And he was right.

Sam didn’t go until the 7th-from-the-last pick, at #249. I predicted that he wouldn’t be drafted until late, because of his obvious limitations, but that he would be drafted because the NFL was determined to keep the Gay Gestapo off their backs. They knew the entire league would be tagged as a bunch of homophobic bigots if Sam wasn’t picked, and the NFL long ago lost whatever testosterone they once had that might have enabled them to stand up to the bullying of homosexual activists.

But I knew he wouldn’t be drafted dead last, because that guy is always nicknamed “Mr. Irrelevant.” So #249 it was. Sam became the first 7^th-round draft pick ever to get a call from the president of the United States, and the president wasn’t calling him to congratulate him for his football prowess.

The contrast between the media’s treatment of Michael Sam and Tim Tebow couldn’t possibly by more striking. Tebow, a devout practitioner of Christianity, was pilloried and ridiculed. Sam, a devout practitioner of the act of sodomy, is lionized and celebrated. It truly is a world turned upside down.

Dolphins safety Don Jones has already – already! – been fined by the NFL and sent to reeducation camp for sending out critical Tweets of Sam’s sloppy wet kiss for his gay lover, the photo of which was plastered all over the top of Drudge on Sunday. Jones won’t be allowed to return to the team until his lobotomy is complete.

For a league increasingly priding itself on concern for player safety and health, it is bizarre that they are enthusiastically praising a draftee for a lifestyle that could send him to an early grave.

The NFL has already spent $765 million in compensation to former players who suffered concussions during their careers, and are limiting helmet-to-helmet contact in such a way that the league will soon be reduced to flag football, all in the interest in player health.

This makes their fluttering hysterics over Sam inexplicable in a sane, rational world. According to the Centers for Disease Control – not, you will note, a part of the vast rightwing conspiracy – young black males comprise the single highest risk category for HIV/AIDS.

While the CDC reports that 78 percent of all new HIV infections are among males, primarily those who have sex with other men, HIV/AIDS is taking a monstrous toll on young males in particular. According to the CDC, more than a quarter of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are found in young males between the ages of 13-24, particularly in young males between 20-24, the category into which Sam falls. In fact, young men are the only age group in which the rate of HIV/AIDS infections is showing a significant increase.

Despite the fact that blacks comprise just 12 percent of the population, blacks who are Sam’s age represent an astonishing 57 percent of all new cases among young males. There are more new HIV infections among young black males (aged 13-24) than any other age or racial group, period. Alarmingly, the estimated rate of new HIV infection for black males is eight times as high as that of white men.

In other words, as a young, black, homosexual male, Michael Sam is in the single highest risk category for HIV/AIDS that exists on the planet. The NFL should be warning him, not glorifying him.

According to a study published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Epidemiology, again not a part of the vast rightwing conspiracy, active participation in the homosexual lifestyle will cut anywhere from eight to 20 years off a male’s expected life span. The NFL is extolling behavior that may well turn out to be a death sentence for this young man.

If the NFL possessed one ounce of genuine compassion instead of the ersatz kind that exalts what should be condemned, they would be meeting privately with Michael Sam to urge him, in the strongest possible terms, to pursue reparative therapy in the hopes of saving his life.

Alas, the only people who truly care for Mr. Sam are those who love him enough to tell him the truth about the health risks of homosexual behavior – and that sadly does not include the leadership of the NFL. They long ago sold their souls to the virulent, vitriolic bullies and bigots of Big Gay. But it will be Michael Sam who pays the price for their soulless cowardice.

This article was originally posted at the OneNewsNow.com website.

I grew up in Denver and am admittedly biased. I’m a Denver Broncos fanatic. In the Mile High City, the Broncos are more than just a football team; they’re an institution.

Everybody loves a comeback. Former Broncos quarterback John Elway – one of the greatest QBs in NFL history – had comebacks in his DNA. Since he retired in 1999 after back-to-back Super Bowl wins, Denver fans have been jonesing for that regular shot of adrenaline Elway provided week in, week out.

Enter Tim Tebow. In the category of, “Holy cow, can he actually do it?” no Broncos QB since Elway has delivered like Tebow has. He feels familiar. This is what Broncos fans expect. We don’t do steady. We prefer up and down, high and low until that improbable rocket launch to victory in the final seconds of the game.

Will Tebow end up an NFL great like John Elway? That remains to be seen. Opinions are all over the place. But what is certain is that Tim Tebow is more than just a sports phenomenon. He’s a cultural phenomenon.

For starters, Tebow’s very existence is somehow controversial. He’s a walking pro-life testimonial. He’s been pulling off comebacks since before he was born. Pam Tebow, Tim’s mother, courageously chose to carry baby Tim to term despite doctors’ recommendations that she abort him.

You may recall that before Tim went pro, the Christian group, Focus on the Family, commissioned an innocuous TV ad that ran during the 2010 Saints-Colts Super Bowl game. It briefly told the story of the Tebows’ pre-natal struggle. The word “abortion” was never even uttered, but a positive portrayal of childbearing was all it took.

And so began the left’s hate affair with Tim Tebow. Radical feminist groups, media-types and liberal pundits alike lost their collective noodle even before the ad ran.

Erin Mattson, vice president of The National Organization for Women (NOW), told ABC News that Tim’s story of survival was “really quite offensive. … This ad is hate masquerading as love!” she barked. Tim wasn’t dismembered alive and scraped in pieces from his mother’s womb, you see.

The New York-based Women’s Media Center launched a failed censorship petition drive to pull the ad, framing it as an “attack on choice.” Get it? Pam Tebow chose alright; she just happened to make the wrong “choice,” and dared to share about it publicly.

But as a Denver Bronco, Tim Tebow’s profile has grown exponentially. So too has the left’s hatred for him.

This is due in large part to his very open Christian faith. After each game, Tim begins by thanking God: “First and foremost, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

And who hasn’t heard of “Tebowing,” wherein one drops to a knee in prayer?

Then there’s Tim’s favorite Bible verse, John 3:16, which he’s known to wear painted in black swaths under each eye. After the Broncos’ recent electrifying playoff win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime, John 3:16 was reportedly the most popular search term on the Internet.

Remarkably, during the game Tebow passed for precisely 316 yards and averaged 31.6 yards per completed pass. The television viewing audience for the last 15 minutes of the game was 31.6 percent. This only added to the mystique.

So big was the story, in fact, that major news outlets like CNN ran the text of John 3:16 in its entirety: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The attention that Tebow’s bold Christian faith has drawn to the Gospel message has secular “progressives” and other God-deniers tied in knots.

American Atheists, a New Jersey-based group that promotes religious cleansing from the public sphere, says that Tebow is “full of cr*p.”

“Tebow takes religion and injects it into the mix and divides the fan base,” complained David Silverman, the group’s president.

“[Religion] injects the divisive force into football,” he continued (because, absent religion, football is just a touchy-feely snuggle fest). “Why in the world are we talking about religion when we are talking about football?” he demanded.

Of course, Tim Tebow is merely doing what Jesus asks of his followers: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32)

The problem is that secular “progressives” don’t want Christ acknowledged before anyone, period; and they endeavor to shut down or mock anybody who tries.

During the Broncos’ regular season loss to the Buffalo Bills, for instance, “progressive” troglodyte and pseudo-intellectual funnyman Bill Maher tweeted about the game, encapsulating the left’s visceral hatred for Tim Tebow in 140 characters or less: “Wow, Jesus just [expletive deleted] #TimTebow bad! And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler ‘Hey, Buffalo’s killing them.'”

Jesus addressed the Bill Mahers of the world – past, present and future – on more than one occasion. In John 15:18-20, for instance, He reminds His followers: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

Those who belong to the world do indeed hate Tim Tebow. He stands for much of what our postmodern popular culture despises: sexual purity within the bonds of natural marriage, the sanctity of human life, selflessness, personal charity, humility and much, much more.

I mean, Tim Tebow has never even been arrested for drug possession or sexual assault, for crying out loud. We simply can’t allow children this kind of role model.

So, does God care about who wins NFL football games? Probably not. Does he care about those who play, watch and love football? Unquestionably.

Win or lose, no matter what happens with the rest of the Denver Broncos football season, one thing is for sure: people will keep talking about Tim Tebow. And when people are talking about Tim Tebow, they can’t help but talk about the profound faith that drives him both on and off the field.

In the meantime: Go Broncos!

“It is amazing to watch the venom and hatred that is being directed at Tim and Pam Tebow and Focus on the Family by the National Organization of Women (NOW) for a Super Bowl ad that they have not seen,” said Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. “This backlash exposes the irrational hatred of NOW who apparently despises any hint of a positive Christian message. CBS is to be commended for their willingness to not censor a wonderful story of a mother’s courage and love.”

Tim Tebow is a Heisman-winning, University of Florida quarterback and NFL prospect. The ad tells the story of his mother Pam in the ad funded by Focus on the Family. They tell of her high-risk pregnancy when she and her husband were missionaries in the Philippines. Although advised by her doctor to have an abortion, she chose to risk her own life and Tim Tebow was born.

Erin Matson of the National Organization for Women said, “This ad is frankly offensive. It is hate masquerading as love. It sends a message that abortion is always a mistake.”

“Pam Tebow personifies virtues that everyone admires- faith, courage and sacrifice. Ironically, NOW attacks a woman for doing a very brave and virtuous thing because they will not look past their ideological blinders,” said Cass. “NOW should be ashamed. Their disproportionate overreaction against the ad exposes their irrational anti-Christian bigotry.”

by Christian Anti-Defamation Commission