Phil Sheridan: Lin and Tebow: Why do they polarize the fans?

Jeremy Lin.

Did the mere mention of his name make you smile? Cringe? Shrug?

How about Tim Tebow? Now that a few weeks have passed since the Denver quarterback dominated every sports-related conversation, can you hear his name without an immediate smile, cringe, or shrug?

The real question for today isn't about your opinions regarding these two out-of-nowhere sports phenoms. The question is why everyone feels the need to have one, and whether that artificial divide between pro- and anti- is ruining our simple enjoyment of sports.

These questions were buzzing around my head during the Tebowmania Era (circa November 2011-January 2012). They went unaddressed for a couple of reasons. The Eagles were the dominant story in Philadelphia and, frankly, commenting on the reaction to Tebow felt like it would be adding to the already deafening noise.

So why now? Well, it is a slower news week, but it's not just that. If the Tebow thing was a legitimately compelling story buried under an avalanche of hype and contrived controversy - how about a new word: contriversy? - the Lin thing feels like that, only on fast forward.

To wit: My social media feeds blew up with sick-of-Lin-hype comments almost simultaneously with the first flush of Lin-is-awesome comments. The backlash started at nearly the same moment as the lash itself. Technology and the worst parts of our nature now allow us to overreact with enthusiasm and skepticism and cynicism in the time it takes your smartphone to refresh your Twitter feed.

So I knew people were sick of Lin before I fully understood who Lin was or what Lin was doing. The New York Knicks rookie guard was barely a week into his joyride when Jason Whitlock, one of the best sports columnists in the country, was being forced to apologize for a racially insensitive tweet about the kid, an Asian Ivy Leaguer.

This would all be easily shrugged off if it were isolated to sports. Sadly, though, the same dynamic pretty much applies to everything in the US of ADD, from presidential politics to pop music. For the sake of sanity (or Linsanity!), we're going to color inside the lines and stick to sports here.