Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow says he prefers to be remembered for saving babies from abortion than for winning college football’s Bowl Championship Series.
Tebow is known for both his athletic achievements—winning the 2007 Heisman Trophy and leading the University of Florida Gators to two national championships in 2007 and 2009—and for being a Christian and crusading pro-lifer.
“It really does mean a lot more than winning the Super Bowl,” he said at a recent football-themed banquet for Kansans for Life, according to National Right to Life News. “One day, when you look back, and people are talking about you, and they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, what are you going to be known for?’ Are you going to say ‘Super Bowl,’ or ‘We saved a lot of babies’?”
The theme of the annual banquet was “LIV-ing in Victory,” a reference to Super Bowl LIV, won Feb. 2 by the Kansas City Chiefs. About 1,200 people attended the event, including a group affiliated with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs. Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt Jr. served as the master of ceremonies.
Tebow, 32, now plays baseball in the New York Mets minor league farm system. Despite his success in sports, he told Martha MacCallum in a February 2019 interview on Fox News Channel’s “The Untold Story” that his work outside of athletics is more important to him.
“Although I’m extremely competitive and driven in sports, you’ve also got to remember that it’s just a game,” he said. “And that life is more important, and people are more important, and the way you can impact them is more important.”
During his Feb. 11 speech at the Kansans for Life Valentine’s banquet, Tebow turned toward the group associated with the Chiefs and acknowledged their achievement.
“What an accomplishment,” he said. “But you know the best part of that accomplishment is that it gets you an even bigger platform.”
Tebow, who married former Miss Universe Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters on Jan. 20, has used his platform as a former college football champ and ex-NFL player to share his story and pro-life message.
In his speech, Tebow recounted his own experience, describing the pressure that was put on his mother to abort him. Doctors in the Philippines, where his parents were serving as missionaries, urged his mother, then 32, to have an abortion amid medical complications.
He was carried to term, however, and his mother survived and now calls Tebow her “miracle child.” The American-trained doctor in Manila told Tebow’s mother that in his 37 years of being a physician that it was the biggest miracle he’d ever seen.
“I’m so grateful that my mom trusted God with my life and her life,” Tebow said in his speech.
In the interview with MacCallum, Tebow said his parents’ kindness is what has inspired him to lead a life of service.
“To be able to have a mom and a dad that didn’t tell us about loving people—they showed us what loving people really looked like,” he said, adding, “And to have a dad that has given so much of his life to serving people that could truly never do a thing for him.”
Tebow concluded his remarks by affirming—and at the same time, challenging—those attending the banquet.
“What you’re doing here matters. You’re fighting for life. You’re fighting for people that can’t fight for themselves,” he said, adding:
And my question to you is: Are you willing to stand up in the face of persecution, in the face of adversity, in the face of criticism, when other people are going to say it’s not worth it, when other people won’t stand beside you?