I think NBC is showing it's politics when it comes to Tebow's popularity...maybe it's just me. Haven't wondered over the Huffpo swamp, but I suspect they would have the same feelings.
I think NBC sports writers need to look at the big picture...if they did, they would come to the conclusion that the poll is most likely accurate considering Tebow's media exposure overall. An athelete doesn't dominate the sports media unless he's either really bad, or really popular in some way...we can scratch off bad.
All you have to do is look at jersey sales to tell you who is the hottest current pro athelete. Yes the survey (like most surveys) is stupid since you could pick ANY athelete on the planet. Even if it w has narrowed to the NFL, I still think Tebow would win....he's just different. We'll see how popular he remains after the game.