Let's dial it back a few years.
It's the early '90s. Little Timmy Tebow hasn't won a game that matters yet, but he's dreaming big in the backyard.
Feel it: With Ace of Base pumping on the boom box -- pitcher of Tang nearby -- Timmy and big brother Robby toss the ball for hours. High arching passes, screens, nobody dissecting throwing motion -- just children. In this more innocent time, Tebow isn't rallying Denver out of a corner. He's playing for a different team altogether.
"Well, one -- the Florida Gators, but in the NFL, actually, it was the Dallas Cowboys," Tebow told The Dan Patrick Show this week, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. "Emmitt Smith was my favorite player and he was a Gator and maybe the best running back of all time."
Nothing here is surprising. Kids don't prance around the yard pretending to be Tyler Palko and his merry band of misfits. Before there was Tebow Time, the Emmitt Zone was all the rage, guiding Dallas to Super Bowl titles in 1992, 1993 and 1995.
As for a proper Tebow origin story, where is the anecdote about him lifting a car to save a group of migrant workers? Stopping a Tallahassee-bound train with one hand? Turning back time to prevent Robby from falling off the porch?
We need more.