Tim Tebow Zone

I just got done reading an excellent article from the Florida Times Union by Gene Frenette. I usually despise Gene. He comes on the radio sometimes in Jacksonville to fill in for regular hosts and I can’t stand the way he runs a radio show. He’s also not a Gator beat writer, so you can see why I don’t really like him. Nonetheless, he wrote a nice piece on Tim Tebow and how he has no downtime. I’ll let you read the whole article here, and post an excerpt below.

The easy thing for Tebow - a Heisman Trophy winner and arguably the most popular amateur athlete in America - would be to kick back this offseason. Enjoy life. Stop trying to save every soul or appease all the people who want a piece of his time.

But Tebow can’t bring himself to be too self-indulgent, which might be an attribute greater than anything the former Nease High School star has ever accomplished in football.

In fact, if it’s a choice between running a spread offense or spreading the gospel, Tebow will always pick impacting somebody’s salvation over scoring touchdowns.

My favorite piece of the article is when Tebow talks about not having a girlfriend. “No time right now for a girlfriend,” Tebow said. If that’s true, then I want to know what’s going on in all these pictures?

From GatorZone.com, “University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow (Jacksonville, Fla.) was recognized by ESPN on Tuesday, receiving an ESPY nomination for Best Male College Athlete. The award show will be held at the new NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles on July 16 and will air on ESPN on July 20 at 9 p.m. ET.”

Tebow has some tough competition this year. Though he is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, he will be going up against some stud players like Tyler Hansbrough and Michael Beasly. I think from a national publicity aspect, Tebow is by far the most popular of the three. Football is still king in the country, thus giving Timmy an edge in my opinion. More people watched Tim Tebow light up defenses and break all types of records last year, then watched those two basketball players come up short in the NCAA Tourney.

Tim Tebow is going to need a bigger trophy room the way his college career has started. Good luck, and don’t forget to tune in to watch it. Unfortunately since it isn’t broadcast live, we’ll already know the winners before it airs.

There’s one preseason list Tim Tebow is not part of. Playboy Magazine recently named their All-American team, and our favorite Florida Gator Tim Tebow was not selected. There’s no telling if Playboy chose not to select Tebow, or if they did select him, but his people wanted to take his name off the list.

Because of Tim Tebow’s religious beliefs and how much he is involved in the community with young groups and such, he probably spoke out against being part of the Playboy All-American team. Having his face on the cover of an adult magazine sends a mized message and is not something he supports. In fact, this isn’t the first time players have been asked to be removed from the magazine.

In 2003, Georgia defensive end David Pollack and Alabama tackle Wesley Britt made decisions independent of each other to not be a member of the Playboy All-America team. Both said appearing in the magazine, which annually features a two-page spread of the team members in uniform, would go against their Christian beliefs.

“I’ve seen a Playboy magazine before,” Pollack told a Georgia fan Web site at the time. “I don’t see anything wrong with a Playboy magazine, if someone wants to buy it. I just wouldn’t want to be promoted in it. I do a ton of speaking in church to kids. That would be kind of a double standard, don’t you think?”

You have to believe that Tim Tebow is following in their footsteps. I think it’s a great decision on his part. This is one award that Timmy doesn’t need.

Congratulations to our favorite Florida Gator Tim Tebow! Tebow was named the Southeastern Conference’s male athlete of the year, league commissioner Mike Slive announced Wednesday. SEC athletic directors chose Tebow from a field of 12 nominees. Tim was up against male athletes from all sports, not just football… and boy did he crush the competition. There’s no word on whether or not the decision was unanimous, but my guess is it was.

It’s great to have this kind of news coming out in the middle of June when the football season is pretty much dead. No matter what, Tim Tebow always seems to find a way to get his name in the paper. Keep up the good work Timmy!

Over the weekend, Tebow Zone received another letter from a fan. This one comes from a young man named Caleb (once again a name change to protect the person’s privacy). Caleb is a huge fan of Tim Tebow and thinks of him as a role model.

I don’t know if Tim Tebow will even read this but I really hope that he does. I remember watching ESPN one day and I saw this high school show of Nease High and Tim and it showed him playing high school ball and I knew right then this guy was going to be amazing.

What caught my attention the most was his love and passion for God and how he puts that in the game of football. Tim’s focus wasn’t on himself or making him look good, he played knowing he was serving our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ and played with the gifts and abilities given from God. He instantly became my role model. I am 16 years old and I love the game of football, everything about it excited me. I play for a small private Chirstian school and I love every minute of it. Having a guy like Tim that serves the Lord and spreads the gospel is awesome.

He is one of the most amazing football players to walk on Earth. He has just got all the attributes and character a man should have, but the best part is he would never tell you that. He is humble and a man after God’s own heart. I just want Tim to know how much he’s changed me as a person. My mind was on a whole different level until i read an article about Tim visiting a prison and spreading the gospel: how I need to walk the walk and I need to be real for God. He explained how all this worldy stuff, the Heisman, his championship ring will all fade away eventually and all that will matter is God and our faith. That stopped me dead in my tracks.

This life we are living had one purpose and one purpose only and that is to further God’s Kingdom. Tim I just want you to know your doing a great job of it. I have been so encouraged by you in so many ways I just want to thank you so much for being such a great example for me to follow. I would love to meet you or talk to you sometime! I hope God continues to bless you in many ways and I hope you stay close to God in every situation. Good luck in your upcoming season, I will be watching every game!

If you would like to have your message posted and read by thousands of Tebow fans, please contact us.

Coming off a National Championship in 2006 and a Heisman in 2007… if Tim Tebow comes up short of either one of those in 2008 would you be upset with him? Most Tim Tebow fans, like the readers here, would never think of such things. Tim Tebow can do no wrong in our eyes and I would never say he let us down, even if the Gators don’t win a National Championship this season. But there are some casual fans out there that do feel like players let them down.

Do you think it could happen this year? Can Tim Tebow live up to the hype? Can he repeat hsi record breaking performances from the past two years?

Since Timmy was in high school, he has been the most hyped player in the nation. I remember on National Signing Day, his signing garnered nation attention from ESPN and other major media outlets. He was a big deal. Tim came to UF with a cult following. No one believed he could live up to the hype as a freshman. But you know what… he did. Coming into 2007 it was the same thing. Tebowmania was in full-swing. Media experts said there’s no way he could live up to it. But you know what… he did.

So here we are on the cusp of the 2008 football season and people are already wondering if Tim Tebow can do it again or will he let us down. What they don’t get is that Tebow will never let us down. Even if he threw 50 interceptions, he will still be Tim Tebow and we will still love him.

Matt Hayes of the SportingNews wrote a cool article on Tim Tebow the other day. Check it out here. It’s kind of a brief summer of Tim Tebow’s offseason activities, including his mission to Third World Countries and his many speaking engagements. After reading this, it is absolutely amazing how Timmy can find any time to relax or enjoy himself. He’s the busiest college athlete of all-time.

My favorite part of the article is the end, when Hayes speaks with Tebow about it all:

The lunch break

June 3: Tebow speaks to Matt Hayes, eats a meatball sub. “Things are finally starting to slow down a bit,” Tebow says. “I haven’t had a meatball sub in a long time, and it tastes good.”

That’s classic Tebow. The man is always happy and enjoys life. I love how he kicks in that sense of humor too. There are still a couple more weeks until the Gators return to the practice fields, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more of his off-season activities.

I haven’t played a game of EA NCAA football since probably the 2006 or 2007 edition, but that doesn’t mean a lot of gamers out there aren’t going to pick this game up. NCAA 09 is one of the most popular sports games for all video game consoles. EA recently released a spreadsheet with game stats for all the players from Top 25 teams (which you can download here). Since the Florida Gators are a Top 25 Team, we can check out what Tim Tebow’s stats are.

Tebow happens to be the only offensive player in the game with an overall score of 99. Hot damn! The only other player in the game with an overall score of 99 is Ohio State Linebacker James Laurinaitis. I guess EA wanted to do one defensive and one offensive player.

For those of you who won’t buy the game or are too lazy to download the provided spreadsheet, I’ll go ahead and post some of Tebow’s game stats. These are on a scale from 1-100… with 100 being the best.

• 99 - Overall player rating
• 84 - Speed
• 85 - Strength
• 82 - Agility
• 90 - Trucking
• 88 - Stiff Arm
• 97 - Throw Power
• 93 - Throw Accuracy
• 93 - Stamina
• 46 - Hit Power

Now the only problem I have with the above stats is Hit Power. How can EA only give Tim Tebow a Hit Power rating of 46. Don’t they watch the games and see the abuse he puts on defenders?

What is it with rival fans manipulating pictures of Gator athletes using Photoshop? I remember during the Florida Gator basketball championship runs, Ohio State fans were having photoshop contests to see who could make the most ridiculous looking photos of Joakim Noah. Didn’t matter in the end, because the Gators smashed them for their second straight National Championship.

Well, now it looks like some rival fans are out to get Tim Tebow. I found this picture of Tebow on the internet. It depicts him riding on a scooter in the middle of UF Campus. The photo is clearly a photoshop job… afterall, we all know Tim Tebow flies to class.

Our friends over at Gator Envy have a contest and are offering Gator Fans an opportunity to win $20 worth of free Gator Merchandise from Football Fanatics. This is the perfect chance for you to get that Tim Tebow t-shirt you’ve always wanted!

To participate in the contest, you will need to be a member at Gator Envy (registration is free and open to anyone). After you become a member, all you need to do is post on the message board 10 times and you’ll be entered for a chance to win! You have 1 month to post 10 times, but honestly, you could complete it in under 10 minutes if you wanted.

If you’re getting bored over the summer because Tebow news is slow… you should head on over to Gator Envy and join the contest. Who knows, you may meet some new Gator friends while there.

For complete contest details click here.