The old argument that sports and religion should not mix is getting a workout from quarterback Tim Tebow, who wears his religion not on his sleeve, but on his eye black.
Tebow, 21, announced this week that he is coming back for his senior season at the University of Florida, presumably to try to win a third national title, as well as a second Heisman Trophy. His return as the college game's most visible superstar also rekindles the fascinating discussion over God's role in the game of football — the separation of church and Florida State, if you will.
Tebow, born in the Philippines to missionary parents, is a throwback, and not just because he combines the toughness of Bronko Nagurski with the flair of Sammy Baugh.
"I always have my milk the night before I go to sleep before a game,"
the 6-3, 240-pound Tebow said in the days leading up to last week's BCS national championship game.
Unusual? Perhaps, until you consider this: as a 15-year-old, Tebow preached to 10,000 high school students in the Philippines. "It gives me a sense of purpose of how to handle things knowing that football is not the most important thing,"
he said. "People always ask me, 'How do you handle the pressure, and how do you handle this or that?' Being places where I've been with people who are there trying to fight for their next meal, I think that's pressure, not trying to win a football game."
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Try putting that on the locker room wall next year, SEC teams.
"I'm a people pleaser,"
Tebow says by way of explanation. "I want to please people, and I want to do the right thing and everything, but sometimes people are not going to see it for that, they're going to see it as, 'Oh, you're faking, you're just trying to make people like you and whatnot.' So that sometimes can be hurtful. But at the same time, my parents have really helped me with that. They'll say if you know that's the right thing to do and you're happy with it, then you shouldn't let those people say that. No matter what you do, there's going to be people who are going to try to bring you down, so that's human nature and that's what people try to do."
That said, there's always a valid conversation to be had about just what kind of role God plays in, say, the BCS title game. Even those of us who grew up in church and believe in God have every right to wonder if he really cares whether a field goal goes through the uprights or drifts to the left or right. Doesn't God have more important worries than who wins the SEC or Big 12?
In some ways, Tebow simply is the latest in a long line of athletes who have brought God into the locker room and onto the playing field. But, in other ways, he's not like them at all. His upbringing has given him a religious DNA that most athletes, not to mention the rest of us, never will possess. There is nothing forced about Tebow's religious ways, nothing overtly pious. His sentences flow from football to religion and back with the ease of a simple pitch to the tailback.
"Even more than playing football at the next level,"
he says, "my ultimate goal is to make a difference and to do something that matters. Football is just an opportunity for me to do that on a bigger platform, for me to make it bigger."
Which explains the eye black. After choosing Philippians 4:13 (shortened to Phil 4:13 because of the limited space under his eyes) during the regular season, Tebow switched to the ubiquitous John 3:16 for the BCS game. Perhaps the biblical passage is not as well known as we think, though, because for a time that evening, it was the most popularly searched item on Google.
Let's consider that for a moment. No matter how you feel about mixing religion and sports, the notion that people were looking up a Bible verse while watching a college football game is about as rare and refreshing as a true sophomore winning the Heisman Trophy. (There's been only one of those, of course: Tebow.)
The other day, after starting to walk off the stage at Florida's national championship celebration, Tebow slyly stepped back to announce that he was not turning pro and was coming back for his senior season. This means that, for another year, Saturdays will belong to one of the most intriguing young men to ever play the college game.
It also means that it will be another year before we get to find out how he'll do in the NFL. Then again, don't we already have a pretty good idea?
Sunday, after all, has always been a fine day for Tim Tebow.
