Did Colin Cowherd tweak Tim Tebow fans, Broncos fans this afternoon?

Before I start this column, I want to throw out the disclaimer that I am a fan of Colin Cowherd on ESPN. I watch Cowherd every morning on my television but he has been interrupted this week because of matches at Wimbledon in exchange so sports fans can watch the dreadful First Take ESPN. First Take features two people who seemingly argue about nothing more than Lebron James on a daily basis. Football fans can’t reach the remote fast enough.

Those of us which live in Florida, have been dealing with the affects of Tropical Storm Debby for several days. Since the Cowherd show has been disrupted on television this week, I was able to pick up a portion of his show this afternoon on my return trip home on the ride home after checking for storm damage.

Towards the top of the 1 p.m. hour and the end of his radio show, Cowherd referenced a survey recently conducted about who should be the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos; Peyton Manning or Tim Tebow. Cowherd, who stated he didn’t want to mix politics and sports went on to quote stats from a recent survey in which those which associated themselves politically in the survey he reported. According to Cowherd, conservatives favored Tim Tebow as the Denver quarterback next season and those which addressed themselves as liberals found themselves in favor of Peyton Manning being the Broncos signal caller in 2012. I can’t seem to find the correct survey online he referenced.

I believe that he might have referenced a recent survey conducted by Colorado State University, but since I was driving in pouring rain and it would be irresponsible to take notes while driving in tropical storm force rain, I couldn’t find the reference on the Herd’s website.  I was able, however, able to find a survey from Public Policy Polling which claims that Coloradans miss Tim Tebow but Broncos fans seem pretty excited about Peyton Manning under center for next season. The survey was issued in a press release on June 21. The endorsement of Manning was widespread across the demographic in nearly every one of the multiple surveys conducted.

From the Public Policy Polling website-

Tebow gets more popular the older the voters are.  Therefore, Republicans like him a net 20 points more than they do Manning, and 38 points more than Democrats like Tebow.  But when it comes down to winning on the field, Republicans (45-35) and seniors (49-29) still prefer Manning to man their offense this season.  However, opinion favoring Manning is still much stronger with Democrats (61-13), independents (54-14), and voters of the younger age groups (up to 40 points for those between 30 and 45).

If this is the survey that Mr. Cowherd is referring to, there are multiple pages of survey data included on the PDF file that Public Policy Polling provides and none of them seemingly support his claims this afternoon. In all reality, 799 voters were polled with no description of how the “voters” polled were selected or even if the “voters” are going to vote in the upcoming election. If this is not the survey he is referencing, I stand corrected and am in full apology. Respondents to this survey were not classified as Conservative or Liberal, just Republican or Democrat.

I am not a Tim Tebow fan by any stretch of the imagination. I am a Florida State University fan and was glad to see Tebow graduate to the next level. Rip it up in the NFL my man. I have no vested interest in Tim Tebow’s success in the NFL, but he does have a very poor track record so far.

However, looking at this Public Policy Polling Survey, I am not seeing the results which Mr. Cowherd reported on this afternoon prior to the end of his show. Perhaps I am looking at the incorrect survey. If he does indeed reference the Public Policy Polling website, the survey  also asked Colorado residents about the location of the “fictional South Park” region of the state. The region isn’t just in cartoons, but actually does exist. So one has to question the validity of this poll if this is exactly the one Mr. Cowherd used this afternoon.