More Liberal Bias - This Time From ESPN
Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:34AM 
(FLP Opinion) - A little known fact is that liberal bias among sports journalists is every bit as bad, if not worse, than bias among news journalists. An example of that is the undertone of disdain many sports journalists hold for Tim Tebow. It's certainly no secret that many have tired of the God loving Tebow storyline.
The latest example of Tebow bashing comes from ESPN.com where they are currently running the following headline, "Report: Tebow Scored Low On Wonderlic Test".
The Wonderlic is essentially an IQ test that is given at the NFL Combine to determine each players aptitude. I've given the Wonderlic to prospective employees for years and understand what type of score constitutes low, average, good and great.
Here's a portion of the ESPN story:
While former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow wowed evaluators with his on-field performance at the NFL combine last month, he scored a 22 out of 50 on the Wonderlic test, the Palm Beach Post reported, citing an NFL source.
The 12-minute test measures an individual's learning and problem-solving abilities.
According to the Post, the average Wonderlic score for an NFL quarterback is 24. The newspaper also reported that the quarterback prospects in Mel Kiper Jr.'s latest rankings on ESPN.com -- Sam Bradford of Oklahoma (36), Colt McCoy of Texas (25) and Jimmy Clausen of Notre Dame (23) -- scored higher than Tebow.
To put those scores in perspective, the Post compared Wonderlic numbers of run-of-the-mill NFL quarterbacks such as Alex Smith (40) and Matt Leinart (35) to those of Pro Football Hall of Famers Dan Marino and Jim Kelly (both 15) and an established star such as Donovan McNabb (14) of the Philadelphia.
Yeah, what about the (6) that Vince Young made?
Actual ESPN headline graphicYou see, 22 on the Wonderlic is an average score. It's not great, but it's far from awful and it's certainly not low enough to warrant a headline that will lead many to believe Tebow is stupid. The test measures what you know, not your capacity to learn.
In my years of giving the test, the average score has been between 22 - 25. My Dad gave the test for years to engineers and the average score he saw was in a similar range. To be clear, these tests of which I speak were being given to people who were going to make considerably more than an average income - they weren't dummies.
To put this in perspective, here is my own Wonderlic Scoring Assessment that I developed a few years back:
- Above 40 - Genius
- 30 - 39 - Highly Intelligent
- 25 - 29 - Smart
- 20 - 24 - Average to Slightly Above Average
- 15 - 19 - Average to Slightly Below Average
- 10 - 14 - Below Average
- Below 10 - Moron or Simply Can't Read
The point is the kid didn't do that bad. Certainly not bad enough for ESPN to run a headline that suggests he's a moron? In fact, based on my assessment, the kid has a corresponding IQ between 105 - 110. Maybe not genius level, but well above NFL greats such as Marino, Kelly and McNabb.
In fairness, ESPN Draft guru's Mel Kiper and Todd McShay both downplayed the Wonderlic score as all but irrelevant, but the that doesn't change the fact that the ESPN.com headline suggested otherwise. I sincerely doubt any other high-profile player would have been subjected to such scrutiny for a score that was only one point below fellow QB Jimmy Clausen and three points below Colt McCoy.
I could be wrong... but I doubt it.
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Reader Comments (8)
Very interesting post Pundit. I'm a huge ESPN fan, but absolutely see your point. I remember the furor surrounding Vince Young scoring 6, but then they let him take it again and he scored like 18 and the media portrayed him as right in the mainstream.
First time on your site. I actually saw this on ESPN earlier and thought what you wrote. 22 is just not that low. Heck, when you compare it to Kelly, Marino and McNabb, he's a freaking genius. Based on that, I thought it was a misleading headline.
don't sweat it pundit, espn has produced it's own litter of poindexters including none other than your favorite and mine- queef "bathtubboy" uberdork. if this is the barometer of knowledge to come out of espn, fox news should consider a spin-off sports-only station for us goodguys sans the liberal sputum. espn would become the m-ess nbc of sports and RAYchel madcow and her lezbee friends would switch it to 24 hour womens mud wrestling
Forget about Tebow, Vince Young must hold the record for the dumbest man to take a snap in the NFL. A 6 on the Wonderlic! Look, I'm no genius, but even I knocked down a 27 a few years back. That guy shouldn't be allowed out of the house without supervision with a score like that. It would appear that when God handed out gifts, he gave old Vince a double helping of athleticism and 1/4 cup of brains.
Great post Pundit. This really is bizarre. Think about it, Tebow is not considered a first round pick, yet they're focused on his low Wonderlic score and not that of a guy like Jimmy Clausen who is projected by many to go in the first 10 picks of the draft? How does that make sense? They were one point apart on a 50 question test. If one is dumb, so is the other.
Holy Cheesehead Batman, we must rush over to the Walmart store....Mr. Tebow and
Ms. Palin is trapped in the back of the sporting goods section without a Walmart store
locator...Damn, where is Barry Obambam when the chips is down ??????
Somewhere in Alaska a "star" shines ray's of hope for all......
I think you're spot on with this. Tebow is definitely no favorite of the liberal left and I'm sure they'll do what they can to minimize the impact he can have on the public. Making him a moron is one of way of discrediting him.
Complete horseshit. ESPN goes after the projected 3rd rounder instead of the guy who is a top ten pick (Clausen)? In case you didn't notice, he was below average too.