As you read this, I am hard at work imbibing the contents of my giant, green Bubba Keg on a bus to Baton Rogue.
I'm surrounded by more than 100 of my best friends on this trip, and one thought continues to run through my mind: Is Tim Tebow dead?
Actually, that question is probably irrelevant in the ultimate scheme of things because John Brantley's Heisman campaign just now seems to be heating up. Without fail, every time I turn on ESPN, check Yahoo! Sports online or pick up the Alligator, I read about the imminent demise of Tebow and the rise of Brantley.
Did you know that his high school numbers were better than Tebow's? Watch any news source for more than a passing second, and you soon will.
To be completely honest, I'm flabbergasted that Brantley hasn't yet jumped to the top of ESPN.com's Heisman Watch poll. Both his passer rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio are better than Tebow's.
Let's just go ahead and fly him to New York now and award him the Heisman Trophy.
Frankly, all this attention focused on the quarterback situation here in Gainesville is flat-out ridiculous. Without a doubt, some press is due when the Heisman-Trophy-winning quarterback of the No. 1 team in the nation goes down with a concussion. But the national media obsession with Tebow and Brantley has spiraled out of control.
In the end, though, this is just another symptom of the media's fixation with college athletes such as Tebow. It is simply unacceptable for the media and nation to feast on the ups and downs of college athletes, no matter what sport they participate in. At the end of the day, these student athletes are just that - student athletes.
Asking them whether they are virgins (as they did to Tebow during a press conference) is unethical and not newsworthy. If you wouldn't ask a college student standing next to you on the bus ride to the office the question, you certainly should not be putting these twenty-somethings on the spot in front of the national spotlight.
Taking it a step further, some have even advocated paying college athletes in the power conferences by not only giving them free tuition but a flat salary. Aside from destroying the slight parity that already exists in college sports, this would completely eliminate the student part of the equation.
If you attend a university and are granted a degree, you damned well better have earned it. The current system makes that outcome questionable for thousands of college athletes, and a change to a salary-based system in college sports would only make the value of their degrees laughable.
Tebow and his backup, Brantley, are just two of the many examples of media excess and infatuation with college stars. There should be coverage, without a doubt. But there should also be respect for the fact that they are both athletes and scholars.
Otherwise the media should be covering the speed with which I just downed the full 72 ounces of my Bubba Keg.
Kyle Robisch is a political science and economics junior. His column appears on Fridays.
