There is an excerpt from Frank Deford’s new memoir in SI this week: “When the NBA Was Young.” 

Fun read. For more on Deford, check out this fine podcast with Richard Deitsch.

Over at SI.com, here’s Richard Deitsch on the man people love to hate and sometimes hate to love:

As the Broncos beat reporter for the Denver Post, Lindsay Jones admits her job description has become “all Tim Tebow, all the time.” But over the past two months, Jones has noticed that the Tebow phenomenon has filtered outside her city limits. As she’s traveled to cover the Broncos on the road, the reporter says the lead feature in Sunday sports sections is often the Denver quarterback, and that Tebow is a recurring and vibrant subject on the sports-talk debate airwaves as well.

Clearly, the Broncos quarterback is moving the sports needle nationally. But by how much, and who else is doing likewise? To get an answer we sought advice from a number of sources, including those in sports marketing, television and research.

Perhaps the most remarkable finding is that Tebow now rates alongside such celebrities as Jennifer Aniston, Lady Gaga, Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Taylor Swift when it comes to aspiration (the degree to which consumers feel a celebrity has a life to which they would aspire) and influence (the degree to which consumers believe a celebrity is an influence in today’s world).

[Photo Credit: Robert Swetz]