Tim Tebow fooled us.
Through all the amazing plays and bone-crushing hits he always walked away. He always got up.
At least on some level, we all came to believe that he really was Superman. That his greatness would pull him through no matter what.
It's hard to describe the eerie silence that followed Taylor Wyndham's hit Saturday night in Lexington.
The collective gasp that followed was almost more disbelief than concern. It didn't seem real.
Seeing Tebow lying there motionless on the ground took something away. It robbed him of his immortality.
For as different as he is with a football in his hands, in the back of an ambulance he was just like everyone else.
Urban Meyer was visibly shaken up during his postgame press conference. He talks about Tebow being like his son, and it's hard to imagine this won't affect the way Meyer uses him in the future.
How many third-and-1 runs up the middle are worth the risk? How many carries are enough?
Tebow has carried the ball 530 times for the Gators. That's more rushing attempts than running backs Jeff Demps, Chris Rainey and Emmanuel Moody have combined (376) in their careers.
LSU's Charles Scott (351) hasn't carried it as much as Tebow, and neither have Arkansas' Michael Smith (314), Tennessee's Montario Hardesty (362) or Auburn's Ben Tate (487).
Meyer is in no way to blame for what happened against UK. It was just one of those freak things that happens on a football field. If Marcus Gilbert's knee doesn't end up exactly where it did, Tebow probably pops right back up.
No one will ever question Tebow's toughness. But after seeing the Heisman Trophy winner on the ground like that, can you really go back to the way things were?
Tebow broke his leg as a high school sophomore. He hurt his shoulder against Kentucky in 2007 and received painkilling injections before the final six games of that season - an injury he aggravated again in the 2008 season opener and played with all of last year.
That means he got a pain-killing shot before 19 of Florida's last 20 games heading into the 2009 season.
He broke his non-throwing hand against Florida State in Nov. 2007 and played the Capital One Bowl against Michigan with a protective sleeve.
In addition to the shoulder problem, he played three games with a hyper-extended knee and with a sprained left ankle against Georgia in 2008.
For as much as Tebow will want to keep playing the way he did and for as courageously stubborn as he will probably be about it, Meyer owes it to Tebow to put his health first now.
Let Tebow be Tebow when you have to. Let him run and throw and do the impossible. But when you don't have to, don't.
Let Emmanuel Moody plow into the line on third and 1. Let Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey run out the clock. From now on, the fourth quarter should belong to John Brantley if the game's not in doubt.
Tebow has already given this school and the UF football program too much.
He deserves to be able to walk back out onto Florida Field 20 years from now without a limp.
