Finally, it’s over.
Thankfully, it’s over.
Mercifully, it’s over.
At long last, Tim Tebow’s athletic career is done.
He was one of the first players cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Tuesday, effectively ending his passionate pursuit of being a professional athlete.
Good.
I’m glad.
Now, he can focus his attention on something much more meaningful than trying to make the roster of the worst team in the NFL or trying to hit a curveball thrown by a no-name minor league pitcher.
It’s time for Timothy Richard Tebow to save the world.
Or, at least, save this country.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Tim Tebow, if he wants to pursue it, could and should someday become the President of the United States of America.
He’s that diplomatic, that charismatic and that emblematic of what we need in a president.
Honest. Generous. Caring.
Which is another reason I’m glad he’s done trying to play professional sports, where it has troublingly become trendy to bash Tebow and root for him to fail. If you don’t believe me just look at the vitriol on Tebow’s Twitter timeline after he was cut Tuesday and tweeted out a heartfelt message of thanks to the Jaguars and everyone who supported him.
Or go back and look at all the controversy and consternation it caused when Jaguars coach Urban Meyer signed Tebow — Meyer’s former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Florida and one of the greatest college football players of all time — and gave him a shot to make his hometown NFL team as a backup tight end.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith ridiculously claimed that Tebow’s signing by the Jags was an example of “white privilege.” And countless others jumped on the trash-Tebow bandwagon. You would have thought the Jaguars had signed a serial rapist instead of a serial humanitarian.
When Tebow missed a block in the Jaguars’ first preseason game over the weekend, a video of the play went viral with millions of views and countless comments from those reveling in Tebow’s whiff.
When did we reach a point in American sports when it became cool to root against Tebow — one of the most benevolent athletes we’ve ever known; an athlete who helps build hospitals and orphanages in developing nations; an athlete whose latest initiative is fighting against human trafficking around the globe; an athlete who ministers to prisoners on death row; an athlete who annually holds “Night to Shine” events at dozens of different sites around the world where thousands of special-needs teenagers are treated to a prom that includes a red-carpet entrance with paparazzi, limousine rides, hair and makeup beauty stations, shoeshines, dinner and dancing?
I’ll be the first to admit that I thought the Jaguars signing a 34-year-old Tebow was a bad idea, but I sure as hell was pulling for him to somehow, someway prove me wrong. Shouldn’t anybody with any sense of common decency have been rooting for Tebow to succeed instead of flop?
Yet another reason why I’ve been saying and writing for years that Tebow will be — or, at least, should be — president someday. I believe this country is thirsting for a politician who can make goodness and graciousness fashionable again and restore some of the common, traditional Christian values this country was supposed to be built upon — love, respect, generosity, righteousness, helping others.
“The goal is to bring people together,” Tebow told me once when I asked him about a possible future in politics. “We’re not supposed to divide people.”
If only today’s poisonously polarizing politicians and polluting partisan pundits on the cable news channels preached what Tebow preaches. I’ve had political experts past and present tell me that Tebow already has a strong political base with the Christian right and that a case could be made that he is now the most beloved and famous Christian personality in this country.
“I don’t think there’s any question he could be president someday,” says Joel Hawskley, the former director of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee and the owner of a reputable political consulting firm. “Politics today isn’t so much about party politics as it is about candidate politics. It’s a popularity contest. Tim Tebow already has the natural brand with his faith, but he’s not considered radical. Fundraising would be a breeze and so much of politics today is about how much money you can raise.”
Let’s face it, if a blowhard billionaire like Donald Trump can win the Republican nomination then why not a compassionate Christian like Tim Tebow?
This is why I’m glad he got cut by the Jaguars on Tuesday.
Tim Tebow should not be a punchline.
He should be the President of the United States in 2024.
