Reggie White vs. Tim Tebow
I’m not that old, but I remember a certain Eagles defensive lineman who would, aside from eating quarterbacks for a Sunday afternoon snack, hold prayer sessions on the sidelines after games. As I recall, he was normally surrounded by several players from both teams, who would huddle around him and pray with him, ignoring the cameras. No one seemed to have any problem with it.
Nowadays, a single quarterback kneels in a quick prayer of thanks to God after scoring drives and wins, and is ridiculed broadly for it. He’s told to “turn it down a notch”, “dial it back”, “lay off the God act”, and so on.
I can’t explain the difference in reaction to Reggie White as opposed to Tim Tebow, but it might be because people aren’t afraid that Tebow is going to send 300 pounds of pain train after them for mocking him. They might want to think twice about that assumption.