"Then I got up there and preached. They’re all interested in seeing me and hearing me after hearing I’m from Florida and the national championship. They’re all wanting to hear what we had to say. It was awesome. You’re talking to guys who don’t have much to look forward to in life there. They made some bad decisions and they’re in there. A lot don’t have much hope or anything to look at as positive. I said, ‘Everyone looks at you all like you’re nothing. I’m here to share with you all that you’re no different than I am. You just made a few bad choices, and that doesn’t make you any worse of a person or God doesn’t love you any less now. You just have to have to some of the consequences for your actions. That still doesn’t mean that God loves you any less. He still wants to have a personal relationship with you."
--Tim Tebow, on speaking to a group of men in prison
HG, my football /baseball/all things sports correspondent, knows everything there is to know about things of which I know next to nothing. When he starts filling me in on the GREATS of footballdom, I best be listening. (Do I really have a choice when we're in the car together? Of course not!)
He picked me up last night to go to dinner---since there was no home game of interest within a hundred mile radius---with the Florida-Kentucky game blaring on the radio. When we arrived at the restaurant, we sat in his truck in the parking lot, listening to the last few minutes of the game which saw Florida take it away from Kentucky 45-37. Even I found it exciting.
Then our conversation turned to Tim Tebow:
"You know Tebow's history, don't you? And that he was home schooled by his mom, all the way through high school? But he was allowed to play football on a Florida high school team anyway?" he queried me.
While I had heard of Tim Tebow, all relavant facts had gone in one ear and out the other. So my ears pricked up.
"Home schooled, really? There's got to be evangelical parents there somehow," I said.
"You're probably right, but I don't know anything about that," HG replied. Of course, he didn't know anything about that, but he did tell me a lot about this outstanding young man and quarterback for Florida that I found fascinating.
When I got home later last night, I googled Tim and was not disappointed in what I discovered. He was born in 1987 in the Phillipines and is the sixth son of missionary parents who among other things run an orphanage there. His mother, an evangelical Christian, did indeed homeschool him through the 12th grade.
So without further ado, for my Sunday post, I give you an interview Q&A with Tim done by Pete Thamel and published in the NYT's The Quad several weeks ago.
It's men like Tim Tebow that keep me interested in college sports. Thanks HG, for bringing him to my attention.
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