Tebow on His Fear of Failure

There was a quote from Tim Tebow in the ESPN.com post about his latest round of Broncos camping that totally aligned with my larger theory about last season: That the loss to Alabama in the 2009 SEC Championship Game was even more epic than we had thought.

"I have that in me. The SEC championship loss to Alabama [last December] drives me. That’s with me, more than the national championships or other big wins. The failures stick with you. I don’t want that feeling. Nobody likes that feeling."

That is the first time I had ever seen Tebow mention the loss as either (a) outweighing the championships or (b) outweighing the total Florida experience. I always found Tebow's "relationships not championships" theory to be atomic for him.

It is now obvious that the loss -- not winning that game and that championship -- was even more painful for him than it seemed from his tears on the sidelines as the game ended.

Is it worth positing that the Alabama loss, then, was the defining on-field moment of Tebow's career? Reading into the quote, Tebow might say it was, if only as a reminder of how bad failure feels and how to do everything possible to avoid experiencing it again.