Just seven months after handing the hometown San Diego Chargers one of their most crushing defeats of the season, New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, then with the Denver Broncos, returned to Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday.
Only this time, he replaced the football with a microphone and turned the boos into cheers.
“It feels really good to get an applause in this stadium,” Tebow said. “It’s never happened before.”
Tebow led the Broncos to a 16-13 overtime win against the Chargers last November in San Diego, sending the Bolts to their sixth-consecutive loss.
Tebow ventured into what was once — and still is — enemy territory to speak at a Father’s Day service for Shadow Mountain Community Church, led by pastor David Jeremiah. Shadow Mountain rented out the stadium and invited several area churches to attend.
Some arrived as early as 6 a.m., two hours before gates opened, to tailgate, play touch football and worship.
Tebow went back and forth with Jeremiah, speaking about his faith for little more than half an hour on a stage in the middle of the field.
“The world looks at me as a football player who’s a Christian, but I look at the world and say, ‘I’m a Christian who happens to play football,’” Tebow said.
Falling in line with the theme of Father’s Day, Tebow’s message focused on one of his core fundamental values his father, Bob, instilled in him at a young age.
Bob used Mel Gibson’s character — William Wallace, the Scottish rebel — in the movie “Braveheart” to demonstrate his point. To this day, that remains Tebow’s favorite movie.
“It had the biggest impact on my life because every time I would go to practice from then on out, I would think of what my father said to me: ‘Do I really love what I’m doing? Am I passionate about it? And am I willing to sacrifice more than anybody else?’”
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SOURCE: NFL
