An athlete can lead an unsavory life or even be a criminal and win a pass from the media (just Google “NFL police blotter”). But outspoken Christian athletes face a media blitz against their faith.

The NFL football season begins today – and with it, we can expect another round of attacks on New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow. There are plenty of legitimate questions about the former Heisman winner’s suitability for the NFL. But the most strident assaults on Tebow typically have nothing to do with his completion percentage, and everything to do with his Christian faith.

Back in 2011, NFL analyst and retired Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth explained that some of the roots of the anti-Tebow animus were faith-based: “It’s unbelievable, though, JB, that one of the best kids – just pure kids that’s ever come into the NFL – is hated because of his faith, because of his mission work, because of the fact that he wears it on his sleeve, because of the fact that he lives his life that he talks about.”

Yet it’s true – Tebow’s unembarrassed Christianity has earned him derision and even hatred.

Men’s magazine GQ was the latest to take a shot at “Gang-Green’s” backup quarterback, with a September cover story titled “Have You Accepted Tim Tebow as Your QB and Sunday Savior?” GQ, without Tebow’s knowledge, also used an altered picture of Tebow from his college days with his arms in a cross shape – sparking yet another quarterback controversy. .

Sportswriters are as secular as the rest of the media, and often aggressively seek to purge faith from sports. Just about any Christian athlete who dares to express his or her faith face media scorn for their witness.

But Tebow is the lightning-rod. There are legitimate questions about his playing ability, as there are with any high-profile player, and about the excessive media coverage that many sports outlets give him. But the attacks don’t stop there.

Anti-Tebow comments have sometimes taken absurd forms, such as when the editor of infidelity website Ashley Madison guaranteed that “no man of Tebow’s stature could survive a season in New York without succumbing to the temptations of the city.”

Others have charged Tebow with hypocrisy, as when radio host Craig Carton accused Tebow of being a “fraud” who “clearly thinks he is Jesus” on his Aug. 14 show. Or attacks can simply devolve into vile displays of bigotry, as when CBSChicago.com sportswriter Dan Bernstein called Tebow “little more than an affable simpleton” and his followers “lunatic-fringe cultists” and “batspit crazy fanatics.”

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