Into The Future

as told to Justin Doom

What does the NFL hold for Tim Tebow? Depends whom you ask, and GAME asked Erin Andrews.

Tim Tebow loves a challenge. He told me that even in high school people doubted he could throw the ball or be a winner at Florida, and he said, “Well, it worked out pretty well there.” When I talk to the people who’ve actually played the game, actually coached in the game, and not listen to the talking heads, the guys who’ve never put on a uniform, it’s a pretty different opinion. Steve Young has said, “He’s a rare commodity. You see so many things in Tim that guys in the NFL don’t have.” That’s Steve Young! Are you kidding me? Troy Aikman said he can do it all. Jon Gruden said, “This guy’s totally different, he’s got the makeup of Drew Brees and Rich Gannon.” Tony Dungy said he’d draft Tebow in the top 10 of the first round. I believe those people know what they’re talking about. You’ll see the big draft boards and so forth, but have those guys actually put the pads on? Do they know what goes into winning a game or leading a team? Those guys will say, “Yeah, second or third round at best” or “He’ll never work out as an NFL quarterback,” but guys that have played in the NFL are like, “This guy has it. He’s going to have to work on some things, but he’s got it.”

I think it’s sad when you have a person who wears his emotions on his sleeve and is as good as it gets with faith and charitable work and giving back to a community and wanting to please everybody yet there are so many people who love to hate him and cheer against him. I guess it’s just part of sports, but we cheer for guys who have all of these problems in their personal life or bring things into locker rooms that they shouldn’t, so why would we cheer against somebody like this? It’s just so strange to me. He’s what’s good about sports. He’s what’s exciting about sports. There are always people who want the best to fall, they want the Lakers to lose, they want LeBron not to win a championship, they didn’t want Timmy to win a national championship, but it’s sad.

With me, and I’ll always be a sports fan, but it can be very difficult to be a sports fan when you cover sports, when you believe that certain guys are great guys and then you meet guys you’ve idolized and then they’re not what you thought, it’s such a bummer, such a heartbreaker. That’s what’s so refreshing about Tim, he’s everything that he portrays himself to be. I believe that’s why so many people cheer for him. That’s also why a lot of people don’t cheer for him, and why a lot of people, I think, sadly, hope he fails. They’re sick and tired of how great the kid is.

I’ve never seen anyone in college athletics who works this hard. His mentality is, he just does not want to let people down. That’s his No. 1 focus. Sure, he wants to go in and beat Alabama, and he wanted to go in and beat Oklahoma, but he doesn’t want to let the fanbase down. He doesn’t want to let his family down. It’s something that really, really drives him. When he talks about winning the national championship, he’ll be like, “Gosh, do you know how many people just had great weekends in Miami because we won that game?” That’s how he thinks! Who else thinks like that?

I know people who are really close to him, people who cover the team and they want the guy to do well because they know how much he cares. When he gets done with games he gets so physically ill because he just puts everything he can into it. People who’ve had the opportunity to cover him, to see what he does, to see how jacked up and competitive he is and how much it means to him just can’t help but want to cheer for somebody like that. And in looking at all the stats, and the two national championships, the Heisman, his speech on the plaque at the stadium, I don’t know if he’s the greatest college football player, but I would think that he’d have to go down as one of the greatest.

Maybe more than anything, I’m really excited for what Tim can do in the NFL in terms of community service. It’s so infectious. Being a friend of his, it makes me want to go out and do stuff all the time with his charities and so forth. Last April, he hosted an event where he raised money for the cancer unit in Gainesville and an orphanage in the Philippines. And, really, he doesn’t need me, any little thing I can do to help is great, but he’s got big-time friends everywhere. Being around him makes you reevaluate your life. You think, What else could I be doing? What’s that next challenge?