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What was it like to cover Tim Tebow while he was at Florida? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss former Florida Gators QB Tim Tebow’s announcement that he has retired from baseball, and reminisce what it was like to cover the superstar while he tore up the college football landscape in Gainesville.

Video Transcript

DAN WETZEL: Tim Tebow retired from baseball. So because it's the offseason, we're going to tell some Tim Tebow stories. Because what the hell? He was an unbelievable college football player and just presence. He was just a star quality for college football that was great, obviously won a national title at UF.

You know, the Bible verse numbers under the eye black, the incredible sincerity with every word that he speaks. I know so many people would be like, I can't-- Tebow, I can't stand him. Like, you never met him. I don't care if you are the biggest atheist, you could be the biggest atheist Florida State fan on Earth, and you meet Tim Tebow and you're like, I like that guy.

Like, that-- if you hate Tim Tebow, you got some issues. Like, he's just so damn earnest and nice. And he believes what he believes and whatever. So Tim Tebow thoughts, Pat.

PAT FORDE: Yeah. Hey, he did-- he gave us one great post pattern in overtime against the Steelers to Demaryius Thomas. Thank you for that. Other than that--

PETE THAMEL: This is a college football podcast, not, like, a Bronco fan, you know. That's your other podcast.

PAT FORDE: We're getting to that. We're getting to that. We're backpedaling. We're backpedaling. But other than that, oh, he was painful in the NFL. I mean, when Mike McCoy was the offensive coordinator and they created the most Cro-Magnon offense imaginable to try to make it work with him. And they won games. They actually were, like, 6 and 1 with him starting.

But it was like, throw the ball six times, run the option, like, 15 times, and handoff 35 times. And it was just, like, incomprehensible as an NFL offense. But, you know, in college, I will say this. I may be prisoner of the moment here and just not thinking, but has anybody had a bigger impact since Tim Tebow than Tim Tebow in college football in terms of people that reacted to him either very positively or outsized negatively?

DAN WETZEL: Cam Newton.

PAT FORDE: Cam, yeah, Cam.

DAN WETZEL: I'd say Cam--

PETE THAMEL: But that was a one-year thing, Dan.

PAT FORDE: That was a one-year thing. Like, Tebow was three year-- four years, four years.

PETE THAMEL: He was Cam Newton for three, really four because he was, like, this really precocious backup on that first title team and would come in in third down packages for Chris Leak, who can get first downs and stuff. So you could feel the legend budding then. But yeah, for three full years he was the center of the sport.

PAT FORDE: Yeah. I mean, and that's the thing. And it was-- as Dan said, this was a guy who had an incredible and utmost sincerity about him. And for the people that are like, oh, he's so over the top about the religion, here's what I always said is you know what? He actually does good things for people.

Like, he goes-- unbelievably charitable, giving of his time, you know, involved in whatever you asked him to do. And if you're going to not like that guy, I think you've got to check yourself. I'm glad I got to cover him. I'm glad he played college football. And good for him for trying the baseball. You know, fine.

He wasn't good, but he kept-- he stuck at it. And, you know, you're going to go play 77 games in Binghamton and 81 games in Syracuse is I think he did. That's not-- that's actually an investment for somebody who could do plenty of other things. So my hat's off to him as an athlete.

PETE THAMEL: He was a delight to cover. So what bothered people most about Tim Tebow was how big he became, which Tim Tebow had no control over. Tim Tebow did not want ESPN to talk about him every 30 seconds. Tim Tebow was not jumping in front of cameras. He was just a completely decent, kind, thoughtful guy who navigated, like, this, you know-- it was just at the onset of social media.

As we were talking here, I pulled up a story I did prior to the '07 season. And this is a quote from Tebow's brother, Peter, who was kind of like his caretaker at Florida, meaning, like, in his last years there when it was hard for Tim to go in public, Peter would go get his dry cleaning and that kind of stuff.

And he said, he's a legend on campus. He's more of a legend than a person, actually. And I thought that, like, really summed up what Tim Tebow was. Because he was, like, larger than life at a time-- like, I feel like that mid-2000s, late 2000s, you start with the [? bushliner ?] teams at SC. You go to those Florida teams. You bring in Alabama.

That's when college football really turned into a 365-day year sport. That's when college football turned into a national sport. And yeah, he was a joy to spend time with and cover. He's one of my favorite athletes I've ever covered. I mean, he was interesting, he was compelling, people love to read about him.

He was thoughtful, there were different layers to him that were just beyond. I mean, I remember calling to the prisons he went to visit, you know, chatting with his parents about his faith, you know, the brothers, and then the industry that sort of percolated up around him. Imagine how much money Tim Tebow would have made with name, image, and likeness.

PAT FORDE: Name, image, likeness, the most.

PETE THAMEL: I don't think there's a college athlete, maybe Zion and Tebow, in the last 20 years would be the two that would have made the most money of name, image, and likeness.