Saturday’s NFL playoff game between Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos and the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots is generating intense interest, with everyone wondering, can Tebow pull off another upset?
Not even Tim Tebow is dreaming Super Bowl or bust for the Denver Broncos, the left-for-dead AFC West champions who rose up to score a dramatic victory in the wild-card round.
A television audience of 42.4 million viewers watched Tebow hit Demaryius Thomas on a post route for an 80-yard catch-and-run to capsize the defending conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers, 29-23, in overtime last Sunday at Invesco Field. It was the nation’s most-watched television program since Super Bowl XLV.
For an encore, Tebow and the Broncos travel to New England to face the top-seeded Patriots on Saturday at 5 p.m. PST at Gillette Stadium. Tebow vs. Tom Brady — the man with three Super Bowl rings and two MVP awards — figures to be an even more closely followed affair, a ratings bonanza for CBS.
“It’s not often that the opposing quarterback gets more publicity locally and nationally than our quarterback,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft told CNBC.
Not even Brady, the heartthrob with the golden arm and supermodel wife, can upstage Tebow, who has captured the imagination of the football public after rescuing a Broncos season gone wrong following a 2-5 start. He led Denver to six consecutive regular-season victories, three in overtime.
Now, the question is: How long can it continue for a team that finished atop its division at 8-8 in a three-way tie? The Broncos lost their final three regular-season games. They didn’t back into the playoffs, they sneaked in via a rear window.
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SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Brad Biggs
