The lower bowl of Humphrey Coliseum was almost completely full on one sideline Monday night, and the upper bowl filled in nicely on that side as well.
The man of the hour was former college football and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who gave a lecture on Mississippi State’s campus as part of Delta Gamma sorority’s “Leadership in Values and Ethics” speaker series. Tebow discussed his two-sport playing career — he also spent three years playing Minor League Baseball in the New York Mets organization — as well as his Christian faith and life lessons he has learned as an athlete.
“I wanted to be a people-pleaser,” Tebow said. “Sometimes when you want to be liked so badly, you conform to things that you shouldn’t conform to. I really had to switch my mindset from wanting to be liked to choosing to want to be respected.”
Tebow was born in the Philippines to American parents and grew up mostly in Jacksonville, Florida, before becoming one of the most decorated college football players of all time at the University of Florida. He helped the Gators win national championships in 2006 and 2008 and became the first underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy in 2007.
Bulldogs quarterback Blake Shapen and former interim head coach Greg Knox, now MSU’s director of career and professional development, introduced Tebow, while two Delta Gamma members moderated the conversation. Shapen said he would always look forward to watching Tebow’s games as a kid, while Knox worked at MSU with Dan Mullen, who had been Tebow’s offensive coordinator at Florida.
“He changed the game of college football. He forced every coach to go out and find the most athletic and talented dual-threat quarterback in the country,” Knox said. “He was special, he was blessed, he was gifted, he was talented.”
The Denver Broncos selected Tebow 25th overall in the 2010 NFL Draft, and in his second pro season, he became the Broncos’ starter and led them to a division title and a dramatic playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. That would be the zenith of his NFL career — he threw just eight passes in 2012 for the New York Jets and despite signing with three more teams in subsequent years, he never played in another NFL game.
At Monday night’s event, Tebow talked about the self-doubt he experienced even while at the top of his game at Florida.
“You would see people wearing your jersey, sometimes for the first time, and I would have voices of ego and pride and arrogance, thinking, ‘Oh man, Timmy, you’re somebody now, because they’re wearing your jersey,’” Tebow said. “(People would tell me), ‘We want you to know you’re our son’s role model, you’re our daughter’s role model.’ And then I would have other voices of shame and guilt — ‘Not if you knew me on my worst day.’”
In 2016, Tebow decided to take up baseball for the first time since his junior year of high school, signing that September with the Mets. He had a solid year at the Double-A level in 2018 but struggled at Triple-A the following year, and with the Minor League season canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, he announced his retirement from baseball.
Tebow has written several books both during and after his athletic career and started the Tim Tebow Foundation in 2010 with the goal of helping people in need through “faith, hope and love.” Since 2014, he has been a college football analyst with ESPN and SEC Network.
“The two things I loved about Tim the most (were) he stood for relentless effort and had relentless faith,” Knox said. “He was a leader and he had a standard, and he held everyone accountable to that standard.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
