Tim Tebow: A Modern-Day Eric Liddell

NOTE: I still plan to run the CoC series but I'm delaying it till tomorrow and using today to talk about Tebow, and give you some articles that really impacted me. So don't worry, we'll discuss replacement theology tomorrow.


We all know who Eric Liddell is. He's the flying Scotsman. The man who wouldn't run on Sunday. Who didn't put his country first when it came to putting his God first. The one immortalized in Chariots of Fire. The guy who was a missionary to China and died serving God.



I posit that Tim Tebow is truly a modern-day Eric Liddell. Born to missionary parents in the Philippines. Tebow's story is out of a movie. Doctors recommended that he be aborted, but his mother decided to have him. He was home schooled till high school in Florida. There, he led his high school team to a championship, playing with a  broken leg. He then went to UFlorida, the worst party school in America, and was an incredible Christian witness. He put verses on his eye-blacks and did a lot of community service, prayer, and winning. He won a lot. Some called him the greatest college quarterback ever. He broke all kinds of records. He became a legend in Florida. He got his own statue and plaque while barely out of college. And he was a virgin. When he disclosed that, he suddenly got attention. Here was an athlete who wasn't a jerk, wasn't narcisstic, wasn't a womanizer, wasn't entitled, and was extremely talented both athletically and mentally.

There was a catch. Tebow's throwing motion is worse than any quarterback currently playing in the NFL.  Coaches talked about turning him into a tight end, or a blocker for running backs. Bill Belichick of the Patriots even mentioned putting him on defense. And no one thought he could succeed at QB and no one thought he'd make it into the first round.

But Josh McDaniels, then coach of the Denver Broncos, was charmed. He picked him in the first round over people like Dez Bryant, WR for the Cowboys. But Tebow never got a chance to play. And McDaniels got fired the next year. So this last year, Tebow was the 3rd QB. But Orton, the first-stringer, coming off a Pro Bowl season looked flat. He played decent by NFL Quarterback standards but the team went 1-4. Tebow comes in and the rest is history. He leads them on an incredible run, loses a couple games down the stretch. Goes into the Steelers game as a complete underdog. Suggs, player for the Ravens, says "Even God can't help Tebow against the Steelers." And that week, Tebow throws for a career high 316 yard, with a  31.6 yard average as well as 2 other 316 connections. Although he lost the next week, no athlete is as talked about as Tebow.

Today, I want to show you this article by Rick Reilly, a jaded atheistic ESPN reporter who spent some time with Tebow. Here are some excepts from "I believe in Tim Tebow":

Who among us is this selfless?

Every week, Tebow picks out someone who is suffering, or who is dying, or who is injured. He flies these people and their families to the Broncos game, rents them a car, puts them up in a nice hotel, buys them dinner (usually at a Dave & Buster's), gets them and their families pregame passes, visits with them just before kickoff (!), gets them 30-yard-line tickets down low, visits with them after the game (sometimes for an hour), has them walk him to his car, and sends them off with a basket of gifts.

Home or road, win or lose, hero or goat.

Remember last week, when the world was pulling its hair out in the hour after Tebow had stunned the Pittsburgh Steelers with an 80-yard OT touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas in the playoffs? And Twitter was exploding with 9,420 tweets about Tebow per second? When an ESPN poll was naming him the most popular athlete in America?

Tebow was spending that hour talking to 16-year-old Bailey Knaub about her 73 surgeries so far and what TV shows she likes."Here he'd just played the game of his life," recalls Bailey's mother, Kathy, of Loveland, Colo., "and the first thing he does after his press conference is come find Bailey and ask, 'Did you get anything to eat?' He acted like what he'd just done wasn't anything, like it was all about Bailey."

After listing three more examples, Reilly goes on to question the idea that this is somehow a distraction from football:

This whole thing makes no football sense, of course. Most NFL players hardly talk to teammates before a game, much less visit with the sick and dying.

Isn't that a huge distraction? "Just the opposite," Tebow says. "It's by far the best thing I do to get myself ready. Here you are, about to play a game that the world says is the most important thing in the world. Win and they praise you. Lose and they crush you. And here I have a chance to talk to the coolest, most courageous people. It puts it all into perspective. The game doesn't really matter. I mean, I'll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money, it's to invest in people's lives, to make a difference

So that's it. I've given up giving up on him. I'm a 100 percent believer. Not in his arm. Not in his skills. I believe in his heart, his there-will-definitely-be-a-pony-under-the-tree optimism, the way his love pours into people, right up to their eyeballs, until they believe they can master the hopeless comeback, too.


After publishing the column, Reilly got a lot of reader response. Here are some of the negative ones that I wanted to quote here to give you guys responses to the attacks on Tebow:


Tebow is all about grandstanding to highlight political-religious issues. He combines lucking into a few wins with this "tourist community service" -- always in plain view of photographers and video cameras -- to push his concerns. The sad part is that so many people (whose number now includes you) have been fooled. There are hundreds of thousands of people doing real service, not photo ops, around the globe, helping people with real, long-term contributions rather than seeking to promote their "brand."
--John (Columbia, Mo.)

You're not just wrong, you're loud wrong. Tebow spends an hour with these kids and their families after the game in a private room off the Broncos Family Room. No photographers or media are allowed. He does the five minutes before the game on the field just to give the kids the thrill of it, but most of the time is private. Tebow constantly makes children's hospital visits and doesn't allow media in the rooms with him. I know because people write and tell me about it. You question his "long-term contributions"? The kid is the son of missionaries! He's been giving time to perfect strangers since he was a small boy in the Philippines. He's trying to build a hospital there now. I'm not a religious person, don't want to be saved, but how can you not be impressed by somebody this bent on helping others? 

Those folks Tebow spends time with; I wonder if any of them are LGBT?
--Lester Ballard (Wheeling, W.Va.)

He doesn't ask. 

Were any of those sick people non-Christians?
--Rex Hannigan (New York)

He doesn't ask.

Is Tim Tebow nice to anyone who ISN'T terminally sick? How about just regular, everyday schmucks? It's easy to feel sorry for people who about to die.
--mistercrispy (Denver)

Since you asked -- with such charm, I might add -- Tebow is unfailingly polite, kind and friendly to everybody I've seen him interact with, whether it's at a party or in a hallway. I take that back, he's startlingly polite, kind and friendly. Put it this way -- the guy is respectful with sportswriters! Believe me, brother, I was as skeptical as you, but there's not a gram of fake in this kid. I've looked everywhere. 

That's the most ringing endorsement I've ever seen from a sportswriter. Do you know that at least 130 people credit Tebow for their salvation in the past two months? I wonder how many more have been inspired, saved, or blessed by his example, life, and service.

And trust me, 20 years from now, there will be a movie. Fourth-and-God?

Leave your movie titles, comments, objections, critique, etc. below! In fact, if you read this post, I hope you leave a comment. Thanks.