Stephen Marche has a terrific piece in this morning’s New York Times about Tim Tebow, religion, and miracles (of sport and otherwise).

I inhaled it first thing today and it’s the first sports piece I can recall having read in recent memory. And I liked it. And I learned things.

You might, too.

Marche says in part:

It has nothing to do with Tebow’s religion. The show-business aspects of Tebow’s Christianity off the field are mostly a distraction. The virginity, the anti-abortion ad, the praying, the laying on of hands, the Tebowing — a pose in which he drops to one knee in prayer, the imitation of which became a brief Internet sensation — they’re all so many stunts. What appealed to me was his absurdity.

Last year, he took a team that was 1-4 to the A.F.C. West title and its first playoff game in seven years — and now he doesn’t even play. How is that possible? What’s more, even his ardent supporters admit he’s physically incompetent at the very position he’s supposed to be playing — his throwing motion is awkward, his passes are wobbly — yet, they argue, he seems to possess some higher talent, the oft-cited but ephemeral “intangibles.”

Read Marche’s column in its entirety HERE.