EDITORIAL: Jets QB Tim Tebow again makes news for all the wrong reasons

The October issue of Vogue features current New York Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow. In some of the photos and shoots one can find online, the question is raised on the status Tebow is beginning to achieve in the media.

One of the sets on the photo shoot, Tebow poses shirtless holding a giant tire. Yes, athletes use tractor tires for strength and conditioning, but the photo doesn’t depict a hard-working athlete training. Instead, it seems to represent a part of society Tebow has publicly denounced.

Athlete, Christian and virgin are three identities Tebow has identified himself as, but the images can be looked at as contradicting the two latter identities. By no means does the photo shoot belittle his religion or virginity, but the poses seem to portray Tebow as a sex symbol — something one can assume is not Tebow’s reasoning for the shoot.

If Tebow wants to continue preaching purity and innocence, maybe he needs to start questioning some of the outlets he associates himself with. Vogue and Jockey both seem like two places someone whose beliefs are being monitored through a magnifying glass should avoid.

Though not saying these photos are in any way provocative, but in Tebow’s three years as a professional quarterback, he seems to have regressed and is participating in something he didn’t at the beginning of his career. If Tebow really practices what he preaches, he needs to draw the line where it is now.

The amount of publicity he even gets for participating in these photo shoots seems as a last drawn effort to legitimize Tebow in the public eye. Since it has been made fairly clear Mark Sanchez is the go-to guy for the Jets at quarterback, the recognition Tebow is getting for doing a photo shoot with Vogue reinforces the fact that Tebow is — and has been — a huge point of focus of the public for reasons other than football.

It seems athletes partaking in photo shoots for fashion magazines, or even reality shows (look how well that turned out for Terrell Owens), takes away from the career of an athlete, whose primary focus should be on the sport he or she is paid to play, not these sidebars that come as a result of the celebrity status being an athlete gives them.

Still being seen as a rushing “quarterback,” Tebow should focus on his spiral, not the iris of a lens.