Every professional sportsperson and athlete knows their career will have ups and downs. No one can predict when the ebb and flow will be and how their legacy will ultimately shape up to be.
When Tim Tebow began playing for Nease High School about two decades ago, he amassed a mind-boggling 157 touchdowns and 13,000 total yards over three seasons. At the University of Florida, he set 28 school records.
Also, he won the national championship for the Gators in 2006 and 2008. Tebow had a completion rate of 66.4%, 88 touchdowns, and 9285 passing yards. However, after that, something changed in the NFL.
Tim Tebow is a Florida legend. But he couldn’t quite crack it in the NFL. He was written off after disappointing seasons with the Denver Broncos, NY Jets. Later, he shifted to baseball but got stuck in the minor league for five years from 2016. He has a broadcaster deal with ESPN and renewed it in 2017 for a multi-year extension. Tim also oversees the TTF (Tim Tebow Foundation), a charitable foundation.
What Happened to Tim Tebow?
Once upon a time, Tim Tebow was a legend. In fact, even now, every Floridian still knows about his legacy. But he couldn’t continue his success streak when he got recruited to play in the NFL.
From the beginning, multiple NFL scouts and talent evaluators questioned whether he could become successful in the NFL. However, despite those concerns, he was selected by the Denver Broncos and that too in the 1st round of the 2010 draft.
Initially, he played well. He was their starter and took them to the playoffs. There, he had a career-high of 2 touchdowns and 316 yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers to take home the victory. But that was it.
The next week, the team lost 45-10 to the Patriots. Despite that, it looked like Tebow would keep his job the next season. However, he never played another game for the team. Speculation began that the coaching staff of the Broncos thought that Tebow was awful.
They were frustrated that he struggled to understand concepts, read defenses, and couldn’t execute the offense properly. In 2012, Tebow was traded to the NY Jets for a late-round pick. Even there, the same rumors began.
Tim ended his Jets career with a dismal completion rate of 6 passes for 39 yards. As was expected, he was gone the next season in April. Things worsened for him when he was put only on the practice squads of the Patriots (2013) and Eagles (2015).
There was no light at the end of the tunnel for Tebow because out of the three preseason games he played with New England, he completed only 36.7%. The fans and even Boston media wanted him to go.
The management agreed because he was cut before the season began. Rumors abound that no team wanted to sign him. So, Tim shifted to baseball in 2016. While the decision raised eyebrows, everyone knew why he was moving.
Tebow hadn’t played baseball since 2005, when he was in high school, but he got into the sport successfully and played in the Mets minor league with limited success. In 2020, he announced he would play in the 2021 World Baseball Classic for the national Philippines baseball team.
This move made sense since Tim was born in the Philippines, where his parents were serving as missionaries for many. However, the Covid-19 pandemic put a spanner in the plans, and the tournament was postponed. This was the central event after which he shifted from actively playing to other related activities.
Where Is Tim Tebow Now?
The ex-Gators quarterback Tim Tebow was involved in making a Netflix documentary series called Untold: Swamp Kings. The 4-episode documentary showed how Tebow, former coach Urban Meyer, and other NFL stars put the spotlight on the Gators program from 2005 to 2010 after three rollercoaster years of the Ron Zook era.
After all, Tim Tebow helped Florida get the 2006 and 2008 BCS national championships and earned the most-wanted Heisman Trophy during his time there. While the documentary got a lot of love, it also upset many college football fans.
Some felt that the series focused too much on the individual successes of the players rather than diving deep into the scandals that peppered coach Meyer’s term. In 2013, Tim Tebow was hired by ESPN as an analyst.
He appeared on the SEC network for college football analysis. In 2014, he talked about the big BCS National Championship Game. After that, in terms of broadcasting gigs, in 2017, he signed a multi-year contract extension that let him pursue his pro baseball dreams as well.
After his baseball career didn’t end up in the major leagues, Tim called it quits in 2021 and continued working as a college football analyst. In 2021, Stephen A. Smith and Tim hosted the First Take show.
He did have tryouts with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 to get back into the NFL, but he couldn’t crack it. In his personal life, on January 2, 2020, he married South African model Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, his longtime partner and Miss Universe 2017.
Both of them are devoted Christians. They also own 153 Jewelry, a jewelry line. Tim also operates the TTF (Tim Tebow Foundation), established in 2010; his foundation provides clothing, housing, education, and medication to orphans in seven countries. TTF also offers a Night to Shine event.
It’s a prom event for special needs individuals. More than 110,000 people were part of Night to Shine nationwide in 2020. Also, Tebow advocates for kids in Florida and the Philippines- his home state and the country of his birth.
Tebow enjoys golfing in his spare time. His estimated wealth is $71 million. It’s rumored that his deal with ESPN gets him $4 million annually.
What are your thoughts about Tim Tebow’s life now?
Should he have been in the NFL more? Or do you think he was given enough chances to prove himself?
Let us know in the comments below.
