I tried. Oh sweet Jesus how I tried. I wanted nothing more than to find something else - anything else - to write about this week.

But I couldn't. It was unavoidable.

It's that goddamn Tebow Thing.

Perhaps you noticed - the Broncos' polarizing lefty made his first start of the season last Sunday, willing his team to victory in furious comeback fashion that's perhaps best described as "fluky," but has also been accurately summed up as the only time since the AFL/NFL merger that a team has come from 15 points down with less than three minutes remaining to win. It was historic. The Tebow-led victory over the winless Miami Dolphins has even been called miraculous, an adjective surely not lost on Tebow's throngs of faithful Christian supporters or those who hate Tebow for his throngs of faithful Christian supporters. 

As a lifelong Broncos fan I watched the entire game. I point this out both to admit my allegiance and bias, and also hopefully establish some bit of authority when it comes to the craziness that unfolded. It was a game of highs and lows. The popular perception is Tebow played horribly for 55 minutes before coming alive. That's only partly true. It was more like 56 or 57 minutes. For the majority of the game Tebow missed throws so badly that, well, I don't even have a humorous metaphor for it. It was some of the ugliest shit I've seen on a football field in a long, long time ... and, remember, I'm a Broncos fan.

Of course, as you've heard, for that last few minutes of the game Timmy REALLY lit it up - completing two skillful and clutch throws, bulldozing for a key two-point conversion, and - most importantly - lifting the entire team around him. It was high football drama, and the kind of thing that only adds to the Legend of Tebow. It was literally ridiculous.

That's what happened on the field - a team, led by an unorthodox quarterback who invokes passionate responses, rallied to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It was a better storyline than fiction could ever provide. That's why we watch and why we care. And it's a beautiful thing.

But the rest of it has to stop. The media's embrace, repackaging and fostering of Tebow Mania is just one more example of an ugly trend that's slowly ruining the inherent entertainment of professional sports one 24-hour cycle after another - ruining the good stuff, the stuff that made us all fans in the first place.

As sports fans, and thanks to the fact we weren't constantly being bombarded by manufactured sports media content, we used to be able to form our own opinions. We used to be able to have our own brains.

Now it's all done for us.

As former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson wrote in Slate this week,

Once upon a time, fans were free to watch football games with their own eyes. They drew their own conclusions based on what they saw. ... They found their own heroes, and when they didn't - when the heroes came pre-made, via NFL Films - they at least saw the game from the players' vantage point. Now we are told by analysts what to look for and what we just saw. We are told why a team won and why a team lost. We are told who is in trouble and who is in the clear.

And we're told all of this - constantly. On a number of channels. 24 hours a day.

As sports media consumers, we've got to put our foot down. Basically, stop reading this very column right now. Our society's thirst for Tebow has surely helped create it, but that doesn't mean we've got no other option than to settle for constant, pointless Tebow-related debates and blather. We may like Tebow, or dislike Tebow, or enjoy talking about Tebow - but that doesn't mean any of us are asking for all Tebow all the time, are we? That's exactly what we're getting - and what they must think we want.

A frustrated and sane Matt Yoder at awfulannouncing.com may have summed it up best:

I simply cannot escape Tim Tebow. Everywhere I turn, there he is - Tim Tebow. On my television. On my radio. On my computer screen. In my mind. Haunting me like something out of Paranormal Activity.

A debate topic on ESPN in the morning. A debate topic on ESPN in the afternoon. A segment on Around the Horn.  On PTI.  On Numbers Never Lie. On SportsNation. Primetime.  The Blitz.  NFL Live.  A SportsCenter segment in the early evening.  A mention in the Monday Night Football game.  Another segment on SportsCenter in the evening. A poll question. A debate the next morning. And the next evening. And the next morning.

Brett Favre and coverage of his annual retirement waffling was merely a warm-up for what we're seeing (and being forced to endure) right now. The media is shoveling Tebow down our throat at alarming speeds and quantities. And Tebow's professional career is, presumably, just starting out. Where is it all headed?

Are we going to take it? Do we want all Tebow, all the time? And do we want similarly overdone coverage of whoever or whatever the media decides is next?

Or are we going to step up to the challenge and turn off the 24/7 Tebow coverage while we still have a chance?

BOX SCORES

The Chicago Cubs named Theo Epstein president of baseball operations Tuesday, officially hiring the former Boston Red Sox GM, who many credit with ending the "curse" that hung over the Red Sox until the team's World Series victory in 2004. At the time of the Red Sox's 2004 World Series victory the team hadn't won a title in 86 years (the team won another title in 2007). That streak of futility is only slightly outdone by the Cubs' current one, a club that's seen 103 new calendar years since its last championship.  "Every opportunity to win is sacred," Epstein was quoted by ESPN as saying during his introductory press conference. Working for the Cubs, he'll soon get a better perspective on just how sacred. ...  Speaking of baseball, the World Series is in full swing as I write this - with St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa being nationally lambasted for what he curiously described as a phone foul-up between the dugout and the bullpen in Game 5 that led to the Texas Rangers taking the contest and gaining a 3-2 edge in the Series. The mix-up prevented Cardinals' closer Jason Motte from warming up in the eighth inning in a timely fashion Monday night, with the Rangers subsequently scoring twice to win 4-2. Insisting that his intention was for Motte to be warming up, LaRussa was quoted by ESPN Tuesday as saying of the phone calls to the bullpen, "Hey, it's my fault. Maybe I slurred it." Anyone who has followed the Cardinals' manager knows it wouldn't be the first time LaRussa has slurred.