what is the peter principle?

I don't know a lot about sports, but I was reading this NPR article about Tim Tebow and was intrigued when the writer described him as, among other things, an "obvious classic example of the Peter Principle, pro football version."

Hmm. The Peter Principle. He offers no context about what this is all about, so he must assume it's common knowledge. Uh-oh. Common knowledge stuff that I don't know! So I looked it up.

According to Wikipedia, the Peter Principle originates from a book by the same name by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull. The principle states that "in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."

In other words, "[The Peter Principle] holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions."

Do any popular TV characters come to mind? I can almost hear the Office theme music playing in the background with Michael Scott giving us two thumbs up.

I only heard about Tim Tebow during the whole Super Bowl Focus on the Family commercial thing. I never knew that teams didn't want to draft him because he doesn't do things "the approved NFL way."

Anyway, just an FYI! I'm totally going to say, "Ugh! It's a classic example of the Peter Principle!" at one of Cyrus's lawyer dinner parties and seem all smart! :D