I don't know what this means in the grand theological scheme of things, but the best play Tim Tebow made yesterday came in the third quarter, when his athleticism and his brains kept him from looking foolish on SportsCenter replays from now until the final trumpet sounds. With Denver already far behind New England, the Broncos had the ball on their own 2-yard line. New England's Brandon Deaderick got in clean and had Tebow wrapped up for an obvious safety, but Tebow fought him off and got free, dropping the ball in the process. He picked it up and circled deeper into the end zone with a couple of Patriots still in pursuit. They had open shots at him, too, but they couldn't bring him down, and Tebow still had enough left to throw a pass across his body with enough ginger on it that he avoided an intentional grounding penalty.

That was his best moment. Through a combination of athleticism and intelligence, he avoided a safety and he avoided a penalty. Otherwise, his team might have lost 43-23. Nevertheless, it was the most exciting play for no gain that I've ever seen.

(As such, it goes on the list with something I saw the late Steve McNair do in college. By an odd set of circumstances, I happened to be in Mississippi the day McNair played against what was then called Troy State in his last game at Alcorn. Midway through the game, McNair got flushed from the pocket, circled back about 30 yards, juked and faked his way through virtually the entire Troy defense, and then, at the end of the play, jumped over some dude for a 1-yard gain that was the greatest 1-yard gain I've ever seen. Now I have my greatest no-gain play to join it. I'm thinking of compiling a life list.)

Reading someone else's mind, and then committing your thoughts on what they're thinking to print, is always a mug's game, but I don't think I'm out of line in believing that it was something of a relief to Tebow yesterday to discover that all he really has established in his career is that he...