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I’m saving myself for marriage.
Wait, that doesn’t belong on the sports page.
There should be scores, stats, photos and another story about whether Dana Holgorsen is going to change the Oklahoma State offense into an air raid attack or stay balanced this season.
At least, that was the way things were before Tim Tebow.
In the past four years, the 22-year-old has become one of the most transcendent figures in sports history, permeating more facets of our society than many of us probably care to think about.
Controversy has followed the former University of Florida quarterback since he was in high school, and his life is constantly under scrutiny to make sure he’s still as spotless as we know he can’t be.
Sunday was just another example.
Tebow was the most talked about football player going into Super Bowl XLIV, despite a plummeting draft stock.
The reason: an appearance in a 30-second ad for the conservative group Focus on the Family, which was touted as a politically charged anti-abortion statement for the ages.
The controversy came because of a long-standing CBS policy to never allow political ads during the Super Bowl, but for some reason the network allowed Tebow to step onto the largest platform in the world and say he thinks abortion is wrong and so should you.
When the ad was over, the only message I got from Tebow was that he likes his mom and hitting people, which I already knew.
It was far from a political statement. It was a below-average ad intended to urge people to go to Focus on the Family’s Web site and check out its services.
The commercial wasn’t nearly as shocking as David Letterman and Jay Leno sitting on a couch together in the Late Show ad later that night.
Yet, this is what happens when Tim Tebow is inserted into anything.
The best example of which came in July, when fanhouse.com’s Clay Travis asked Tebow about his virginity at a press conference during the SEC Media Days.
For decades, matters so personal to an athlete were something journalists shied away from because it wasn’t relevant or called for. Asking a college student such a question is something that still makes many journalists nervous.
But after three years of speculation in forums and around water coolers, Travis decided asking whether Tebow was saving himself for marriage was fair game.
Travis waited his turn and tried miserably to make virginity sound as relevant as the triple option. After some awkward laughing from the stunned room of reporters, Tebow smiled and leaned to the mike.
“Yes,” he answered as if the question was, “Do you like beating Florida State?”
The next day, sports section headlines read similarly to tabloid covers, “Tebow saving himself for marriage, hopes to defend NCAA title.”
Now, high schools could change the way they structure athletics because of Tebow’s success.
Two bills sitting in the legislatures of Alabama and Kentucky bear the quarterback’s name. If passed in either state, the “Tebow Bill” would allow homeschooled students to play sports for their local public high schools.
Tebow’s mother homeschooled him in Florida, where the law allowed him to play on public school teams. He was free to play high school football and, eight years later, he has two BCS Championship rings and a Heisman Trophy. What legislator wouldn’t want his or her own Tebow?
Don’t kid yourself. Even if he flops in the NFL, Tebow isn’t done. He has built a platform where he can speak and people seriously listen to what he has to say, a luxury college athletes are rarely afforded.
He doesn’t need to worry about CBS giving him 30 seconds to get the nation’s attention ever again. When Tebow acts, people will follow.
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