It's GREAT to be a FLORIDA GATOR!

By MARTIN FENNELLY The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 9, 2009

MIAMI - Tim Tebow kept his promise.

Of course he did.

His teammates did, too.

So unless you slept under a Texas, Utah or USC blankie, you woke this morning to Florida's third national football championship.

You woke to the replays from the second half, to the head down, to the gritty runs, to the three Gators scoring drives, to the last of them, the clincher, finished off by an old favorite, a Tim Tebow fake run and jump pass for a touchdown that sealed the 24-14 victory over Oklahoma.

He didn't have his best night.

No, not at all.

He threw two interceptions in the first half, as many as he'd thrown in the first 13 games of this championship season.

But when it mattered, when it counted, Tebow counted more, at least more than Oklahoma Heisman winner Sam Bradford and the historically prolific Sooners offense.

Maybe he isn't the best quarterback in the nation.

He has heard all that. Leading up to this game, he heard Oklahoma defenders flapping their gums about how Tebow would only be the fourth best quarterback in the Big 12, or even the seventh best.

In the end, he was only who he was.

First best.

A winner like we've almost never seen.

There were so many other players in this game.

So many other big Florida plays.

The Gators defense held an Oklahoma team that had scored 60 or more points in its last five games to 14 all night.

Think about that.

Florida held OU without points twice inside the red zone late in the first half - a huge fourth-down stop by former Armwood star Torrey Davis, and an interception by Major Wright, who made the grab only after seemingly the entire defense had batted it around. Team effort.

And there was Percy Harvin, playing through pain, maybe not even at full speed, shredding Oklahoma when it mattered.

But in the end, how could you not come back to No. 15?

You knew he was fired up about his first start in a national championship. He said he'd dreamed about it since he was a kid. Maybe he was tight because of it. He missed a lot of throws, and his two picks were thrown off his back foot. Or maybe he wanted to prove OU's defense wrong, so very wrong. It was motivation.

"Absolutely," Tebow said this week.

So he came out after halftime, the game tied at 7, and he grabbed this night. He led the Gators downfield, running again and again, six times for 48 yards, making big plays, until Harvin ran it in for a 14-7 lead. At one point, he rose up and raised his arms to the Gators in the crowd and roared. They roared right back.

Has there ever been a leader like this kid?

Oklahoma tied it early in the fourth quarter, but the Gators came right back, Harvin breaking off a 52-yard run that eventually led to a field goal.
But the last drive belonged to Tebow, as it should have. After the defense made another big play - Ahmad Black's interception - Tebow led the Gators downfield.

He was left off more than a few Heisman ballots this time around. Maybe that was motivation, too.

Down the field came the Gators.

Down the field came Tim Tebow.

Six passes, six completions.

A 13-yard pass. A 17-yarder on third and 10. Over the middle for 29 yards. Then another for four yards, and one for nine yards on a shovel pass on third and 6, all the way to the Oklahoma 6. He ran up the middle for two yards before jumping and throwing to David Nelson for the score.

A few minutes later, as the game MVP stood on the championship platform with his teammates, how could you not think about the emotional apology and promise Tebow made after the loss to Mississippi, how no one would work harder, or push his team more.

That was the promise.

Thursday night, that was Tim Tebow, and those were his Gators.
Will he be back?

"One More Year," Florida fans screamed to him when it was over.

They don't want to let him go.

And in so many ways, they never will.

Fan Club Grumblings

Because if I posted this over on the Fan Club website I'd probably get banned and all of the Little Susie Sunshine's blowing smoke up Matt's ass would rip me to shreds, I'm doing it here. I'm also not posting the letter because of their little rule about 'not posting it offsite'. So instead I'll just rant a little in the following screed.

I read the letter that Matt wrote to the members of Backstage. Nice enough letter, without much substance, but nice enough. What bothered me about that letter is that although he mentions his brother’s philanthropic activities, activities that I find commendable and very generous, he never addressed whether or not any of the proceeds of the Jon and Friends show in February are going to charity. He smoothly slid off topic to avoid it.

He did enlighten the membership at large that those attending will receive a ‘goodie bag’. I wonder if the goodie bags will be anything like those that were given out at the last Fan Club Trip in 06, the one to Giants Stadium. Yes, I attended. Yes, I got one of said bags that were filled with old issues of the fanzine that they’d been trying for months to sell. A copy of the FC Trip DVD from the previous Giants Stadium show and a CD from The Real Life. Others got different CDs, some were autographed, others not. Mine was. There were a few other minor items in the bag, what they were I don’t recall, but my point is that nothing in the bag, save the autograph on the CD, was anything all that special. Anyone that had been in the FC long enough already had the fanzines. The DVD from the previous trip was only of interest to the people that went, since it wasn’t of the concert or the band, it was of the fans that went. I just hope that the goodie bags that are being distributed at this show are special. It would help make up for a little of the bad publicity the FC is giving the band.....although, I don’t know that the band in general actually cares about the FC or how it's run.

And that’s another point that I’ve often pondered. Yes, I know the history of the FC and why the other families are not involved in it. What I don’t know is why Jon’s family runs it in the first place. It’s not like the band can’t afford to hire a professional company to run the thing and make it somewhere fans WANT to be, want to hang out and WANT others to join, instead of somewhere people are leaving in droves. And they advertise it as 'the official fan club for Bon Jovi' and yet it's all about JON Bon Jovi. Not that I have anything against him (I'd like to have something against him...me), but there are three other official members of the band that are NOT represented.

The way it’s run over there now, a thread that was in the proper section, where a member was bemoaning the loss of her beloved cat got deleted. For what reason? It wasn’t in the band section. It was in the Other section, where it belonged. Yet, the admin thought it appropriate to take the thread down. It makes no sense when there are other threads that could be construed by some as less appropriate (although I think there is far too much censorship on that site to begin with).

Oh and my other beef with that letter, he states that the community is stronger. What the hell is he smoking? I want some of it. The community over there is being ripped apart because of the deceit, lies and broken promises made by the management of the FC, along with the high handed way they run the club. Threads get deleted because they don’t blow flowers and sunshine up the admin’s ass and the admin has the audacity to call it stronger. The only thing stronger about the community is the lack of support for the management of the club. I just wish I’d kept my promise to myself and not rejoined when my membership was up. Sigh.....Bon Jovi is my addiction.