Obviously, I'm rooting for the Patriots tomorrow, but...

I can't help but root for Tim Tebow, too.

Zack McLeod is Tim Tebow's kind of player — and man. And vice-versa.

The 20-year-old former high school football player won't snag any touchdown throws from his hero Saturday at Gillette Stadium when the Denver Broncos' on-field miracle-worker challenges the New England Patriots in an AFC Divisional playoff game. But McLeod just may catch a pass — and more compassion and love than he ever imagined.

As kickoff approaches, Tebow will do what he always does at pressure-packed times — give of himself. The 24-year-old quarterback will spend a few moments with McLeod , who suffered a traumatic brain injury playing football in 2008. They plan to meet on the sidelines as part of the Tebow Foundation's Wish 15 program that grants requests for young people with serious medical issues.

"When we told Zack (this week), he just screamed, 'Nooooo waaaay!' " says his father, Pat McLeod, who along with his wife, Tammy, work as Harvard University chaplains. " We are hoping Tim will throw him a pass. Zack still has great hands."

One thing is for sure: Tebow will hug McLeod.

It's always hard to be sure how much truth there is in what you read in the paper. But this is a story that I know about, and we've known that Zack was going to meet Tim since earlier in the week, when Pat posted the news on Zack's CaringBridge Journal. Despite the damage he suffered nearly four years ago, Zack lights up a room when he enters it, and I'm sure that Tim Tebow will enjoy meeting him nearly as much as Zack enjoys meeting Tim.

Exactly right

Once and future Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who was the head coach who drafted him, on Tim Tebow, quoted in Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback column:

There're going to be doubts about him. Great doubts -- and I understand that. Some people don't think he has the natural traits of a great quarterback. Here's what I think: Do Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods swing the club the same way, hit irons the same way? No. But they both win tournaments. There's different ways to throw, different mechanics, and you can still get the job done.

I hadn't seen that before, and I love it. It's a great analogy. There are certain physical characteristics and abilities that you'd love for your quarterback to have, and Tebow is lacking in some of them. But there's so much more to the position than that. The ranks of the physically ideal "robo-QBs" who fail are legion. There's room for a few that aren't perfect to succeed.

And it (not surprisingly) echoes his former and current boss Bill Belichick, in an anecdote that I love and think speaks volumes.

"I remember sitting in a meeting with Bill that first year in Cleveland and the scouts were going around explaining what this guy does wrong and what this other guy does wrong and on and on. It was all criticism. And Bill said, 'Stop telling me what this guy does wrong. I want to know what he does well. Let's focus on that, and I won't even worry about the rest of it. We just won't ask him to do those things.'

"And you can see he still does that. Everyone else seems to be looking for the perfect player, and he's just the opposite. He says, 'Find out what they do well, we'll use them in that situation for 20 snaps and be thrilled with it.'"

The horror!

How dare CBS show this ad! Where, WHERE, are their standards and practices people? How can they air something this offensive?



To be serious for just a moment, though, does not the uproar over this ad reveal NOW and Planned Parenthood to be be fanatically pro-abortion groups, not, as they so often claim, merely "pro-choice?" How can this possibly offend someone who is merely "pro-choice?"

Obviously, it can't. And the outrage and uproar were preposterous, but oh-so-educational for those who were a) watching and b) educable.


UPDATE: They aired a slightly different version...



...and are now getting criticized for endorsing violence against women.

Again, it reveals the moral bankruptcy of those protesting the ad...