From Wednesday night's Sugar Bowl: Behold the absolute perfect encapsulation of the ESPN-Tim Tebow relationship. Tebow's there on the sidelines, just watching his team implode (familiar position for him this year, yes?) while ESPN's Tom Rinaldi buddies up to him, his hand on an apparently-less-interested Tebow's shoulder.
[Related: Sporting goods store mocks Tim Tebow]
You can view this through any number of lenses. Rinaldi is a journalist, and you could get all huffy about journalistic bias and buddying up to sources and blah blah blah. Some journalists keep a distance from the subjects they cover, while some become (or desperately want to become) their subjects' friends. What's more troubling for ESPN is that this simply perpetuates the impression that they're riding the "you can't talk enough Tebow" train as far as it'll go.
Now, perhaps Tebow and Rinaldi are old friends, and this isn't a professional relationship but a personal one. Whatever. You already believe what you're going to believe about Tebow and ESPN; it's not like this photo's going to change anything.
And so we close with this:
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