Some conservatives have always been pretty touchy about Tim Tebow.
When the former Heisman Trophy winner took the NFL by storm a couple years ago with his late game heroics and his public displays of Christian faith, some on the right were quick to defend the quarterback from occasional mockery.
“Tebowing” was all the rage, with even fellow NFL players mimicking the quarterback’s ritual of bowing on one knee to pray. A sketch on “Saturday Night Live” imagined Jesus paying Tebow a visit in the locker room.
Some didn’t find the jokes too funny, and even employed cries of a double-standard. One Fox Sports columnist, for example, argued that nobody would ridicule Teboy if he practiced Islam.
That argument made a comeback this weekend after Michael Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams to become the first openly gay player in the NFL.
DeMarcus Walker, a defensive end for the national champion Florida State Seminoles, made the comparison on Twitter on Saturday.
Y’all praise Michael Sam for being gay but y’all mocked Tim Tebow for being a Christian. Smh
#Society
— DeMarcus Walker (@livinglegend_44) May 11, 2014
— DeMarcus Walker (@livinglegend_44) May 11, 2014
Michelle Malkin’s staff at Twitchy picked up Walker’s comments and other conservative blogs followed suit.
The gang on “Fox & Friends” got in on the act on Monday, too. Reality television star Donald Trump, a regular on the morning program, agreed with Walker that there was a double standard.
“Well, I guess there must be because Tim Tebow, he went through hell. They went after him like crazy,” Trump said.
Sam, of course, hasn’t been uniformly celebrated since he came out of the closet earlier this year.
Several anonymous NFL insiders predicted that the announcement would hurt Sam’s draft stock. His own father also expressed misgivings with homosexuality beforesaying he had been “terribly misquoted.”
A player for the Miami Dolphins was fined over the weekend for reacting negatively on Twitter to Sam’s selection. He eventually apologized. But “Fox & Friends” still saw a problem.
“Double-standard? Well, maybe it’s more like, well, religion, that’s just not cool,” Steve Doocy observed on Monday morning’s show. “You know, it’s just not cool. How many times have we talked about how in various venues religion, and in particular Christianity, mocked?”
“But certain things are OK, it seems,” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck agreed.
