What Does "Right Now" Mean for Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton?

What do the words "right" and "now" mean? Well, according to dictionary.com, they mean...

Right - to be in accordance with what is just, good, or proper <right conduct>; conforming to facts or truth; suitable, appropriate; genuine, real;

Now - at the present time or moment; in the time immediately before the present <thought of them just now>; in the time immediately to follow: forthwith <come in now>; 

For some reason, when put into the following sentence...

"Right now, [Kyle] Orton is our guy."

... it turns John Fox's statement into "Kyle Orton will be the starting quarterback on opening day and Tim Tebow is an outcast who better call up his buddy Josh McDaniels for a job."

That seems like quite a stretch, if you ask me.

Now, I'm no English major, but that doesn't mean I can't analyze a sentence. "Right now" does not mean "in 6 months". I don't think it takes a genius to figure that one out. Kyle Orton is not the starting quarterback in week 1. Does that mean that he won't be? I'm not saying that, at all. He could be (future tense) the starting quarterback in week 1, but he isn't (present tense), as of this moment.

Instead of getting so caught up on one John Fox sentence regarding the quarterback situation, let's look at another.

"I don't think we'll really figure it out 'til we start competing."

In my opinion, that sentence is a better illustration of the current quarterback competition than the former.

Why ask that question at this point in the year?

The reason that interviewers ask questions like "Who's your starting quarterback?" is to make a story. If they write one thing about how Tebow won't be the starter in the fall and, all of a sudden, Broncos fans come knocking down their door wanting blood. What does this do, in turn? It brings traffic to their site, brings a bit of notoriety to their article/blog/company, and (most importantly) brings them money. More traffic equals more cash. More drama equals more traffic.... thus, more drama equals more cash.

It is February. It's a slow news month. The Super Bowl was just a few weeks ago. The players aren't in OTAs. There's a potential lockout in the near future, but both the NFL and NFLPA are zipping their lips. There aren't any new happenings in the NFL, so when you get a whiff of news, it tends to get blown out of proportion.

The truth is we don't need a proclamation from coach Fox about our starting quarterback, right now. That doesn't do us any good. All it does is give us some conversation fodder for our offseason boredom.

Assuming, Knee-jerking, and Stirring Up Drama

I'm proud of the readers and contributors at MileHighReport. I have seen little to no overreaction or knee-jerking to this supposed quarterback controversy, which is surprising for a website of this magnitude. The frustration, for me, stems from the fact that there have been writers/pundits from outside the Broncos fanbase that characterize us as Tebow-worshiping homers who are swirling like a fart in a whirlwind (smelly and direction-less) due to this news that Tebow "won't be" the starting quarterback.

As Broncos fans, we know what we want (improved players on defense) and we know what we don't want (offseason drama). It's sad for me to admit, but I honestly can't remember the last time that the Broncos had a quiet off-season. There's always something going on. Can't we just have one offseason where nothing happens? No injuries, no arrests, no player vs. coach head-butting...

I am more upset by the fact that there are people out there who are stirring up quarterback drama, seemingly for the sole purpose of stirring up quarterback drama. It is way too early to be worried about who the Broncos starting quarterback is. In a few months, it will be more important, but we haven't even gotten to the point in the off-season where organized team activities are happening.

In a world where every phrase is analyzed, it's easy to get into a situation where you want to predict what happens based on someone's diction, tone of voice or non-verbal communication. But that's a slippery slope. You can quickly become trapped in the rumor mill and distance yourself from reality.It's a lot to ask, I realize, but would it be so bad if we could just hear about a story, report it as is, and not make assumptions? After all, you know what assuming does...

The Truth

We know that it is February. We know that Kyle Orton is currently the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos. We know that the opening day starter for the 2011 season has not been announced, yet. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.