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Spring football practice just started at the University of Florida in Gainesville and it puts a great big smile on my face to know that Tim Tebow, one of college football’s greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, walked out onto that practice field to complete his senior year, by-passing what certainly would have been a multi-million dollar NFL contract had he decided to go pro after last year’s season.  There is an interesting story behind Tebow’s decision to stick around for his senior year that I thought I’d share with those who may be interested.

A day or so before last year’s BCS College Football National Championship Game God impressed upon Tim Tebow that he needed to change the message he had displayed on his eye black all year long. Previously, he had a reference to Phillipians 4:13 on his eye black. He talked to four or five others about switching the message and everyone except his parents told him not to do it because they had been so successful all year with the Phillipians 4:13.

His parents, Pam and Bob Tebow, supported the change and Tebow knew it was the right thing to do. So, he made the change and played the championship game with John 3:16 on his eye black.

We all know the outcome of the game (in case you don’t, the Gators played the #1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners and they won 24–14), but the phone call that Tim Tebow received a couple of days later when he was back in Gainesville is where this story becomes interesting.

Tebow answered his cell phone and it was the P.R. guy for the UF Football team. He said, “You set a new record.” Tebow wondered what kind of record was he talking about, it’s not exactly a new thing for Tebow to break a record of one sort or another. “In the 24 hour period from the start of the BCS championship game, JOHN 3:16 was Googled…93 MILLION times! No other topic had ever been Googled that many times in a 24 hour period of time.”

The follow up story from Urban Meyer, Coach of the 2008 National Champion University Florida football team is where we get look at what kind of person Tebow is:

We all hear about the incredible family Tim is a part of. With everything going on in the world, you just know there is no way Pam and Bob Tebow can be as perfect as they are made out to be.

I am here to tell you I witnessed the most amazing conversation which is the truest testimonial to how incredibly good the Tebows truly are.

A few days after the championship game I sat at a table in the back of the Ballyhoo restaurant with Tim, Pam and Bob Tebow. It was just the four of us and I listened in amazement as Tim’s future about moving to the next level of football was decided. Unbelievably, the NFL was never once mentioned. Tim’s dad started the conversation by saying that Brett Farve spoke about his faith and no one ever listened. Here was a future Hall of Fame quarterback and no one heard his message. Tim then said…”I can think of 93 million reasons why I would want to stay in school and play my senior year at the University of Florida .”

That’s how the decision was made.

Now I know there are skeptics out there, especially those who are anti-Gators and/or anti-Christian.  Seems to me though, it’s very hard to deny that Tebow is the real deal.  It no doubt helps that I’m a Gator fan through and through and that I graduated from UF at the same ceremony as Danny Wuerffel in 1996, but I am really hoping that Tebow has an unprecedented senior year at UF!

Go Gators!