Like many young boys who grew watching professional sports, I dreamed of being a professional athlete. It seemed like the ultimate profession: not only could I play a game all day, I could get paid for it, and paid a lot for that matter, and if that wasn’t enough, I would be a celebrity, and I would be famous, and women would be screaming for my attention, and I would use my celebrity to help save the whales. My dream had it all: fun, fame, fortune, and females. What more could you possibly want?
Well, someone ought to tell Tim Tebow about what being a celebrity athlete is really all about. Apparently, he has made it to the top of the college football world without tapping into its bag of goodies that comes with sports superstardom. Here he is, in his fourth year of playing quarterback for the Florida Gators, two National Championships and a Heisman Trophy later, and he doesn’t seem to get it. Doesn’t he know he could be making millions in the NFL by now? In fact, he could have left the college ranks after his sophomore year and still would have gone down in history as one of the best college players of all time. Instead, he now is recovering from a concussion he sustained September 27 against the University of Kentucky.
Of course, everyone expects Tebow to bounce back from the injury with no ill effects, because up until this point, anyone who has ever been impressed by his success has ceased being surprised. Heck, even his birth was miraculous: according to his parents, “Timmy” should have died no less than four times before he was born because of a deadly illness his mother contracted on a missionary trip to the Philippines. Yes, his parents are missionaries. And yes, perhaps the greatest college quarterback ever is also a well-seasoned missionary himself, taking time every off-season to travel abroad to spread the Good News. And perform circumcisions. I’m not making this up.
Clearly, nothing holds Tim Tebow back. And yet, he has become an icon of restraint in the last year, beginning with his decision to return for his senior year of football, risking, or at least delaying, a pro career promising all of the spoils that every young boy dreams about at night. And yet perhaps his greatest feat of restraint is in a different arena: sex.
Back in July, as Tebow fielded questions at a preseason press conference, a reporter asked him if he, you know, was saving himself for marriage. His response was a lighthearted chuckle and a genuine smile, accompanied by nervous, yet slightly amused laughter from the other reporters in the room. The answer, of course, was “yes I am”, and the whole sports world stopped turning for a moment. Not necessarily because it was surprised, as the guy wrote “John 3:16” on his eye black during the national championship game in January. But the fact that the information was undeniably public now was enough to give pause to sports fans everywhere as they tried to make sense of such a thing.
Think about it: the guy is undeniably good looking, funny, charming, articulate, built like a horse, plays the hardest position in sports better than maybe anyone ever at the college level, is set to make millions the moment he takes his talent to the NFL, not to mention he is doing all of this at the University of Florida, which does not lack for eligible mega-babes, and he’s saving himself for marriage? It honestly is mind-blowing, most especially for a world who would be asking not one question, but two in response: Why?! How?!
The unbelievable nature of the story is only multiplied when you consider the modern culture in college football. It has become a relatively common occurrence for recruits who are visiting a campus to be treated to certain “local ladies” as a sort of foretaste of what life would be like as a member of the team. Sex is a foregone conclusion on college campuses today, and most especially for football players, who are the most eligible bachelors on campus, and many times are particularly sought out by groupies hoping to get close to a star. And so many times players are all too happy to oblige.
Not Timmy. He claims that football is fourth on his list, behind faith, family, and school, in that order (notice: premarital sex is not a priority). And when he says things like that, you almost expect him to say, “ha ha, just kidding,” not because he doesn’t sound sincere, but because he does. He doesn’t sound like a preacher, or an extremist, or even slightly annoyed when faced with cynicism. In fact, he seems to relish the opportunity just to share his faith:
“You know, there's a lot of leaders out there. But, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of good ones. So that's always been my dream and my goal...to be someone that a parent can say, 'Hey, this kid did it the right way.' That's always been my dream and my goal more so than winning a trophy or winning a championship.”
Sounds like he’s just living his dream.
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