Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is the favorite athlete of Americans age 12 and older according to an ESPN poll conducted last month. About 1,500 Americans over the age of 11 were interviewed, and a whopping 3% (or roughly 45 of them) said Tim Tebow was, like, the best athlete around today. ESPN has been taking this poll for 18 years, and only 10 other athletes have reached this acme of adoration.

The 10 other America’s favorites in history have been: Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning, John Elway, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, Mark McGwire, Brett Favre, Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Of the five previous NFL players to achieve such adoration, all quarterbacked their team to at least one Super Bowl.  Tebow hasn’t even been a starting NFL quarterback for a full season.

Is this just the ESPN hype machine at work? “To put this in perspective, Tim Tebow rose to the top before the end of his second season,” said ESPN Sports Poll director person Rich Luker in a statement. “It took Tiger Woods three years, LeBron James eight years and Kobe Bryant 11 years. I think we may be at the front end of a new era in sports stars.

Former NBA star turned TNT basketball analyst Charles Barkley sees the hype as way overblown. “The national nightmare continues,” said Barkley in a recent radio interiview. “Hey listen I like Tim Tebow but there comes a point, he had a great game. He’s supposed to have a great game. They want to make it seem like oh the world is aligned correct. I’m like he does play quarterback. He is supposed to play well … let’s just say the jury is still out on Tebow. He seems like a nice kid but these ups and downs are so different.”