When it comes to Tim Tebow, he reaps what he sows

God help me, as the saying goes, I’m trying to embrace the wonder that is Tim Tebow.

But 25 years ago this Wednesday, I was young and freezing. Weren’t those the days? I was even thrilled to be in Cleveland.

Beside me on that frozen mud of a football field stood Jim Saccomano, the Broncos’ PR guy. The two of us had worked together for years, sometimes in conflict, but now sharing a moment that we still talk about with excitement.

One of us was saying at the time, “Now we’re going to find out if he’s the real deal.” The old, barking Cleveland stadium was just oozing with emotion with dog bones everywhere as John Elway and the Broncos huddled in the end zone.

It was the beginning of “The Drive.” Elway was a young man as well and the Broncos were down by a touchdown in the AFC championship game with the Browns.

Later, everyone would get a kick out of what offensive guard Keith Bishop had to say when they huddled: “We got ‘em right where we want ‘em.”

Until then, Elway had prompted the polarizing argument of the day: Elway or Marino — Elway usually coming up shy.

He was the prima donna who wouldn’t play in Baltimore, the quarterback who lined up behind a guard thinking it was the center, a 0-2 loser in the playoffs his first three years in the league.

And then there was The Drive. It took 15 plays, building tension. Elway is sacked for a loss of eight, leaving a third and 18 from the Cleveland 48 when he throws for 20.

Third and one from the five-yard line, 39 seconds remaining and Elway hits Mark Jackson for a touchdown. The extra point is good, there’s overtime and Denver wins.

Now along comes Tebow. But how can you watch Elway in practice, dart after dart sometimes, just incredible, and then call Tebow a quarterback?

When Tebow throws the ball it’s like an amateur golfer who has trouble hitting a wide-open fairway.

I’m explaining this to the daughter, the one who did the morning radio show on the Lakers’ station and called Kobe a ball hog when he called. I think it goes without saying the show has long ago been canceled.

Now how would you like to be a sportswriter who has gone to more than 20 Super Bowls while covering so many great players and have a daughter who thinks Tebow is as good as it gets?

She wears a Tebow jersey.

In public. And she dances around the living room when he throws a touchdown pass or runs it in. I know this, if she danced around the room every time he threw a pass for an interception she’d drop from exhaustion by the end of the first quarter.

But now it appears anyone who doesn’t believe in Tebow is in the minority. He’s the miracle worker. Yet as the saying goes, “A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.”

Or, as Jack Buck screamed at a Dodgers game once: “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

I mean what do you do when you think you’re still right but come off as a moron for saying so?

I’ve taught my daughter to stick to her guns, listen to her heart and fight for what she believes in, no matter what anyone else has to say.

So now she doesn’t listen to me.

She has her own opinions; just ask Kobe.

And as the saying goes, she’s now saying it: “We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road; they get run over.”

So that’s why she spent a good part of Sunday yelling at her father: “What time is it, Dad?”

I was supposed to fire back, “It’s Tebow time,” and I swear she’s got to get married. But in the meantime I was telling her, “A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.” They should have never given me a book of sayings for Christmas.

She’s got me, though. She says, “Tebow should be your favorite player, Dad. The way you preach about sports being all about entertainment, how can he not be your favorite player?”

OK, so I like my clowns in a circus, not playing quarterback in the NFL. And I had that argument won after Denver’s disastrous finish to the regular season.

But Sunday’s overtime touchdown, much like The Drive, is the kind of thing that’s going to live with some folks for a long time.

Shocking, dazzling, unbelievable and that doesn’t even begin to describe what Tebow pulled off. He looked like a quarterback. How do you just dismiss that?

I’d say the same thing I tell the wife all while quoting John Foster Dulles: “Once, many, many years ago I thought I was wrong. Of course it turned out I had been right all along. But I was wrong to have thought I was wrong.”

But the daughter’s right; this is fun.

Just tell me he’s a fraud, I say when calling Saccomano to discuss Tebow.

“He’s the best,” Sacco says. “Everyone wants him, but we’ve got to wait for him to come back from the Philippines and the grand opening of his hospital. I’m telling you, we’ve had guys go to the hospital for various reasons, but we’ve never had a guy who builds a hospital with his own money.”

I give up: “IT’S TEBOW TIME!”

Or, as Abe Lincoln put it: “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

t.j.simers@latimes.com