Tim Tebow to Florida

I realize that most of my readers don't care about football the way I do, nor do they care about the University of Florida football the way I do.  I understand that all of the orange and blue on my blog is quite garish and most of you politely put up with it.  But, this is a day of rejoicing for the Gator Nation as Tim Tebow, of Nease High School, in Jacksonville, FL has committed to go to Florida.  This was after a fierce recruiting battle that included Michigan, LSU, and USC but which finally came down to Alabama and Florida.  Bammers and Gators have been sweating this one for awhile and the Gators are happy to have won out.

One recruiting service had Tim ranked as the #12 QB prospect in the nation but he is the #1 ranked dual threat QB.  This will fit perfectly with Urban Meyer's new spread offense.  I can't wait to see him exchange the white jersey he is wearing here for the orange and blue.

But the reason I am especially excited is that Tim is a fine Christian young man.  He was on ESPNews announcing his decision today and the first person he thanked was his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And I am especially excited because Tim's dad was my youth minister when I first came to Christ.  So, though I really don't know Tim, I know the family well and know he has had a good upbringing.  Tim's dad heads the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association and you can follow the link to read all about his work in the Phillippines. 

As a sidenote I've got to send major kudos to Bob.  If you follow the link to his ministry site you will notice that he's not pumping up his son Tim.  Lots of parents with talented kids go Hollywood in this situation and I think you can see Bob's character here.  His focus is remaining on Christ, not making a superstar of his son.

I worry about these young athletes who attain stardom at such an early age.  This is why I wrote a couple of posts about Dwight Howard, the fine young Christian B-Ball player who signed with the Orlando Magic straight out of High School.  Some folks took my words about Dwight as criticisms of him, but that wasn't the point at all.  I was concerned that, with all of the fame and notoriety Dwight was attaining at such a young age, that this would adversely impact his walk with Christ.  He already was dealing with many folks who were looking at him as a ticket to get rich and to be thrust into such a situation is very spiritually difficult for anyone, especially a young person.

I have some of the same concerns for Tim.  He already has attained rock star status in Jacksonville and Gainesville.  The expectations for his college football career are already off the charts, and this concerns me.

However, knowing his parents as I do, I think if anyone is spiritually prepared for this it will be Tim.  Although it has been years since I have talked to his dad, I know him well enough to know that if Tim ever steps out of line spiritually his dad will be all over him, even if he's receiving the Heisman Trophy at the time.

I also wanted to mention that Tim, along with his four siblings, was homeschooled through his senior year of high school.  Homeschoolers get unfairly criticized for all kinds of things, treated as if they are inferior socially, intellectually, athletically and in all kinds of ways.  I'm glad to see someone like Tim doing so well to help dispel some of these misconceptions.  So, let me encourage you homeschoolers to keep an eye on Tim in the coming years - he's one among many you can point to that will dispel some of the urban myths about homeschoolers.

Tomorrow night, Wednesday December 14th, ESPN2 has a one hour special about Tim which I understand may be in the tradition of Hoop Dreams. ESPN2 has had a fim crew following Tim around this past year documenting his life and the recruiting process.  My best buddy Scott who still lives in Jax and keeps in touch with the Tebow's told me they even followed Tim to the Phillippines this year on a mission trip.  So, I'm hoping with that and hopefully some footage of him being homeschooled we'll see a positive witness for Christ and a wonderful example of a homeschooled kid on national TV.  The show is called "The Season," and will be on ESPN2 at 10:00pm.

For all of my church folks and local friends I'll be Tivo-ing the show so if anyone wants to come over and watch it you can.

And hey look at this - the Free Republic has a nice post about Tim.

And check out this Orlando Sentinel account of Tim's ministry in the Philippines.