Saw Tim Tebow speak last night - Very long - Bama fans might like too

Tim Tebow haters: this is too long for you anyway.
Bama fans: You may like the recruiting story
UF fans: You will like this

Event: Fundraiser for a Christian School in Jacksonville

Summary: Dan Hicken (local sports caster) MC'd the event and the normal auction stuff went down. Two signed helmets went for pretty decent cabbage. Tim was interviewed by Hicken and then some kids were brought on stage and they each asked one question.

I will only highlight a couple/three parts of the evening for those with the TL/DR syndrome. I'll start with the Bama recruitment so they can move along to another thread.

College choice: short concise version

His final list was Bama, UF, Mich, USC and LSU. In making his final decision he eliminated USC for distance and they had a ton of QBs. He said he liked Jimbo at LSU but not enough to override the distance. As for Mich, he said that they were eliminated for distance and for the fact that the girls were not as pretty up there (predictable SECRantard comments to follow and the crowd cheered wildly). Here's where it gets interesting and some of which I had heard but didn't believe until hearing it from him.

Tim said that up until the hiring of Urban Meyer he was going to attend Bama. He said that he loved the "passion" of Bama fans and the experience at their stadium. He really liked Shula too. Shula was at the Tebow house the day before his announcement for 14 hours. He said his mom was sick of Shula by the end of 3 meals and snacks with him (he was half kidding but not if you know what I mean). He did say Shula's last effort to impress them was dinner...at Cracker Barrel.

Urban was at his house the day before and was there for 4-5 hours.

The day of his announcement he still said he had no idea where he was going. Announcement at 5pm and at 4:30 he still doesn't know. Leaving next part out because it will just be a flame fest. 4:40 he calls Shula and says he's not coming to Bama. Shula stops him and says he'll love Tebow even if he doesn't come to Bama and hopes to coach him in the future. This impressed Tim a great deal. Tim said, that's the kind of guy I want to play for.

He then calls Urban to tell him it's going to be UF and because Urban is on the road he loses signal and the call is dropped. Tim is rushed on the stage without being able to re-reach Urban. Tim then says wait, I didn't tell Urban yes, I can still go to Bama. Shula will be shocked but I can still do that. He was really close to going to Bama even though he was/is a die hard Gator. If not for Urban he would have been a Dark Pink Elephant. In the end, Tim said that Urban's passion for the game and energy made the difference. He did say, that his parents never pushed UF, his brothers never pushed for UF and his HS coach never pushed for UF. They all said it's your choice, you've always made good decisions and you'll make another one.

The rest is history. There was no way to shorten that and I left out a lot of details because it gets too long.

Some of that is probably in the book. I haven't read it yet.

Last note on recruitment:

He said he kept waiting for God to show him the best place for him. Then he realized that God was not leading him by sight (showing him) but by faith. That was a cool statement and that's next on the list to discuss with my son.

A couple of other notes:

Troy Polamalu:

Troy tackled Tim during the playoff game and proceeded to rip one of those rubber bracelets off Tim's wrist. Tim protests saying "Troy, a girl with cancer gave that to me two weeks ago". Troy was taken back and apologized for the action and told Tim, "God bless you". Tim was kind of caught off guard saying that he expected to hear all kinds of explicit words. He went on to say the Troy is one of the nicest guys he's met in the NFL. I just envision Troy realizes what he just did and feeling terrible about it.

Emmitt Smith:

During the championship game against OK Tim said their drive to go up 14-7 included lots of runs for him. After they scored, Tim was tired and took a knee on the sidelines. He then said he felt someone patting him hard on the back saying something some. He thought it was an equipment guy so he starts to get up thinking he needed to move. As he gets up he said instead of an equipment guy he sees a jacked up guy in a nice suit. He then sees it's Emmitt and he's floored. Emmitt is one if his childhood favorites (Tim was a Dallas fan). Emmitt proceeds to hit Tim on the chest saying good job, keep it up.

Then Tim said that he, Percy, Chico, and Coop were standing there together looking and pointing at Emmitt saying something like this: You see that guy over there, that's Emmitt Smith. He came to watch us play ball. How cool is that...

Tim talked about Tebowing and he didn't really care for the term and didn't understand why it had to be created now since he's been doing the same thing for 7-8 years including HS.

He addressed his overseas missions and those were some of the best stories IMO.

The kid is the real deal when it comes to faith. There's not a disingenuous bone in his body. What you see is what you get.

Anyway, I was able to turn some of the stuff Tim said about missions into teaching moments about pride and selfishness so it was well worth the investment.

The kid questions were funny and if anyone is interested let me know. The last kid questions was gold. One of my friend's daughters asked him "The girls of the private school (name of school not important) want to know what qualities you are looking for in a girl. Tim said a sweet girl with a servant's heart (more ridiculous comments to follow).