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Tim Tebow Has Bigger Fish to Fry
A little story… I moved to Tennessee when I was twelve days shy of 21 years old, and enrolled at Lee University at 22. I moved there mere months after UT won the national title, so the whole state was painted in orange…well, even more than normal at least.
I didn’t grow up a college football fan. If a game was on Saturdays, Dad and I would watch, but it wasn’t appointment TV. Appointment TV was the Chicago Bears…and the Boston Celtics when Bird was around, but that’s another story for another day. I said to myself that I wouldn’t get myself into this SEC religion. I’m not getting into this SEC religion. I was adamant about this.
It didn’t work out that way. I got hooked just like everyone else.
For the first few years, it went just as scripted. I was a big Tennessee fan. Phil Fulmer had some really good teams in those years. They won six of eight against Alabama before Alabama dominated, and they were always in the conversation in the SEC. All that really stopped them was those Gators and Steve Spurrier. You know…you can’t spell Citrus without UT Spurrier. Same guy. I once had my media and rivalry created enemies. I once hated the Cardinals, I hated the Packers, I hated the Lakers.
And I did hate the Gators.
Then Tim Tebow showed up.
There has always been something about that guy that you couldn’t hate unless you tried (more on that in a moment). He had a certain leadership, a certain maturity, that you don’t get out of someone that age. He was incredibly likable, very nice to everyone, and always had a big heart. Being the son of missionaries, he learned to give back to the world from the start.
This didn’t mean he was weak. Oh no. On the field, few wanted to win more. Few were more motivating.
In this era, everyone is built like a wall…including some kickers. In that time, Tebow was a unicorn. 6’3″ 240 pounds. He had a good arm, and a lot of speed, but he ran defenders over like they weren’t even there, and that included linebackers. You didn’t see this at that time at all. Even with the size of athletes now, you still don’t see that much.
I couldn’t hate him. I still rooted for Tennessee, but I rooted for Tebow and Florida also. When they played each other, I was pretty neutral.
What changed me was the media, and it was the first time I hated the media with a burning fire.
Remember when I said you couldn’t hate Tebow unless you tried? They tried. They went out of their way to hate him. Some openly rooted for him to fail all through his career. Why? Because he was open about his relationship with God, and his prayer. It was a lesson of the hypocrisy that the media would show. I mean why hate the guy? He gave the fans what they wanted, he gave the media a story every week. He had a great attitude, he never hid from anyone.
You hate a guy like this because he exposes your flaws. You hate what he represents because you have wanted it to go away, but it will end your career if you go out and say something like that. Instead, you expose yourself as someone that thinks taking a knee is only half controversial…the half you don’t agree with.
We all know the rest of his career. He had a cup of coffee in the NFL, played baseball, and tried football one more time as a tight end. I won’t go into this because I have something else to write about that is more important.
When Tebow attempted to make it at tight end, I admit that I wasn’t going to be sad if and when he got cut. Mind you, if he made it, I’d cheer for him on Sundays. I just didn’t want him to be in sports anymore because he has bigger fish to fry now.
I have a saying that I bring out every once in a while. There are only three reasons to ever be a tough guy…protect yourself, protect your girl, and make money. Making money by using your body should die at 30. You need to spend the rest of your life using your mind to make a difference, be it small-scale or large-scale. Tebow raised funds for orphanages in the Philippines, raised money for a cancer center in Gainesville, has the Tim Tebow Foundation, built a hospital in the Philippines, and has an event called Night To Shine, a prom for those with special needs around the world.
Most of all, he’s working on a very important subject: human and sex trafficking.
Tebow and his foundation are partnering with organizations around the world to rescue trafficked women and children. He’s making speeches and helping raise millions of dollars to put an end to this. An estimated 40 million people around the world are bought and sold as slaves in the trafficking trade. It generates $150 billion worldwide. Seventy percent are female. This is a very important initiative to focus on for the rest of our days.
Tim doesn’t need sports anymore. In truth, he really doesn’t need to speak on ESPN anymore. He has business interests and investments that will keep him and his family wealthy for the rest of their natural lives.
This is important now. His hospitals and orphanages are important. Night to Shine is important.
Maybe he’ll get into politics, and maybe he won’t, but the world needs him for things of far more importance than our entertainment.
He’s still young enough to make a huge difference.
Published in Sports
A great story about someone who matters, and is making a difference. Someone worthy of your title “Hero”.
I know it is off the central topic, but I feel I must talk about his playoff victory over the Pittsburg Steelers when he was with Denver. Basically the Steelers forced him to pass. They thought that he was a lousy passer who could not get past his first read, and would then panic and run. They thought there secondary was so superior that Tebow could not pass against them. Tebow beat them passing. He was forced to pass the entire game to keep Denver in the game, and when it came down to crunch time, he won with a game winning pass. Somehow, the press passed all this off as a lucky break for a bad quarterback against a great defense. Reading the game coverage, you would think Pittsburg was robbed of a victory. I still hear the game referred to as a lucky break for Tebow. I need to go back and analyze the game play by play, in order to defend Tebow pass n future discussions. The press hated Tebow.
Tim Tebow is someone to admire. With him G_d is always first. In that playoff game I remember that he had 316 yards passing. John 3:16.
It was purely spiritual. They hated him because he was openly Christian, winning, and having fun with both. They hate that. Compare his experience with that of Lamar Jackson – a below average passer who makes highlights when he runs, and yet loses playoff games – and the prejudice is glaring.
Tebow was a difficult paradox for me. I’m a KC fan, I haaaaaaate the Broncos. But I found myself rooting for them in the playoffs because of Tebow.
The bias he faced as a player is the same with his work now, the topic makes some people squirm because they dont want to face it. Conservatives who blast Trump ignore the fact that he did more to combat human trafficking than all of his predecessors since Lincoln combined. Something Tebow’s work reminds us of.
Some people hate that.
Human nature has always included a large potential for envy in the hearts of those feeling they are being shown up by someone. Not much changed since Cain slew Abel, or Joseph’s jealous brothers sold him into slavery.
Did Ricochet forbid the word God to be said here? I am just asking because I didn’t, and I won’t
It’s a courtesy to our Jewish friends here on R . I go ahead and use His title because I believe the curtain has been torn. Our Jewish friends extend the courtesy to those of us who write His name. We happily abide either way.
That’s fair
I love Night to Shine! My special needs sister attends – she calls it her “prom dance”. I volunteer at the Night to Shine in my home city. The fact that Tim Tebow brought these individuals out of the shadows for this special night says so much about him. It took the energy and high profile of someone like him to make that happen. Of course, it goes with his Christian attitude that every human is made in God’s image and deserves our respect and love. This is why, in my view, attacks on the phrase “All lives Matter” is anti-Christian. I wish more “influencers” weilded their influence like Tebow. Imagine the positives from 20 Tebows!
Tebow is one helluva guy . . .
Nice post. I too find Tebow extraordinarily likable, and the media’s hatred makes me follow him more so. I don’t think I have ever heard he gets frustrated at the media ever. That’s way better than I could have done in his shoes. It’s too bad he couldn’t make it big in any of the sports but the worth of a human being is beyond achievement. He’s blessed in ways the mendacious media will never understand.
I write G-d like that because I like Jewish writers.