Caplis, who said last August that Tebow was the victim of biased media coverage, dubbed the day "Black Monday" and spent much of yesterday's show arguing that the Broncos' apparent coup was actually an enormous mistake. He explains why below.
"What it comes back to is what I focused on from the beginning -- the facts," Caplis says. "My opinion in this thing shouldn't matter at all, but the facts do matter. They should matter to everybody. I was able to predict Tebow's success by following the facts, and if you're logical and rational about this, and follow the facts, too, they tell you the Broncos have a much better chance of winning now and long-term with Tebow rather than Manning."
One such fact involves Tebow's completion percentage -- well under 50 percent, making him the least accurate starting quarterback in the NFL last season by a wide margin. But Caplis argues that folks who cite this digit "are ignoring all of the more positive statistics that show Tebow is a very high-caliber passer. They're ignoring touchdown passes per attempt, a huge statistics where Tebow for his first sixteen games is way ahead of where Manning was. He had far fewer interceptions per attempt than even Manning did in the last season he played. And his touchdown pass to interception ratio is enormously important."Besides, he goes on, "even though Tebow has a lower completion percentage than many quarterbacks, he had a better win-loss percentage than a lot of them. That proves completion percentage is a less important statistic than many other ones. And Tebow understands that. He's smart. He realizes that keeping interceptions down is more important than a flashier completion percentage, so he throws the ball away when he needs to -- because he'd rather win games than pad statistics."
Numbers don't mean everything to Caplis, a proud conservative who's very public about his faith. "I would not care so much about this if Tim Tebow wasn't a great person and a great Christian leader," he acknowledges. "But just because he's a great person and a great Christian leader is no reason to be unfair to him. And what I've tried to do is bring to the table all of these facts that get buried by most of the rest of the media -- facts that show he is truly a great quarterback of historic proportions on the field."
Not that he's a Manning hater. "I love Peyton Manning," Caplis says. "My kid wore Manning jerseys for three years before Tebow got here. But what you don't get from the local media except for our show is that for all his regular season greatness, Peyton Manning's style usually doesn't hold up well in the playoffs. And that's what it comes back to for me. The stakes are so high here, and I just want people to be fully informed -- and I don't think the media consumer is getting that information right now unless they're listening to our show.
"As a fan, I want the Broncos' decision to be rational, based on the facts, and not a Hail Mary pass when you don't need one. And I view this as an unnecessary Hail Mary."
Page down to continue reading Dan Caplis's take on Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning.
