Tebow reflects on how NFL career ended: ‘God, what do you want me to do with this?’

It’s crazy to think that Tim Tebow last threw a meaningful NFL pass nearly seven years ago.

Jan. 8 will mark the seventh anniversary of that memorable play.

And while Tebow has been busting his butt and working hard to become a legitimate baseball prospect, it’s impossible to blame the guy for not at least thinking about what it would be like to still be in the NFL.

That’s exactly what Tebow was asked to reflect upon when he appeared on the Nov. 28 episode of “Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris.”

Faris, a former “Good Morning America” co-host, runs her podcast through ABC Radio. It focuses on how people’s faith gets them through the “best and worst of times.”

Tebow’s NFL career perfectly encapsulates the “best and worst of times” but the former quarterback’s faith clearly kept him afloat through it all.

Being a natural competitor, Tebow opened up about how, even today, he sometimes struggles to watch the NFL.

“It’s still hard sometimes when I watch games and I’m thinking, ‘I can totally do that.’ Or, ‘I can be doing this or playing here or crushing that,’” Tebow said.

Frankly, Tebow’s underselling that fact. Considering that quarterbacks like Nathan Peterman and Cody Kessler have started games for NFL teams this year, it’s hard to believe Tebow couldn’t still play football in 2018.

To put things in perspective, Tebow’s last real shot at playing in the NFL ended with a riveting overtime playoff win over the perennially competitive Pittsburgh Steelers. Players like Peterman and Kessler not only stink as players, neither has sniffed the playoffs.

It would be hard to blame Tebow for feeling shortchanged and bitter about how his football career came to an end. Unsurprisingly, Tebow never felt that way despite the fact that his NFL career “didn’t go at all as planned.”

“I think God used the highs and the lows for a purpose and you try to embrace that and say, ‘OK, God, what do you want me to do with this?’ And he opened up baseball as an avenue,” Tebow said on the podcast. And truly, baseball has opened up as an avenue for him, with some legitimate chatter about a potential major league call-up.

Tebow also perfectly explained why, through the highs and lows of his career, he doesn’t let sports define him.

“What happens when football is over? What happens when baseball is over? What happens when people don’t remember my name or who I am? If I found my identity in that, when it’s done, I’d be crushed. There’s nothing left,” he explained.

But if Tebow’s true mission were ever to be put in words, one of the first things he said on the podcast captures it perfectly.

“I want to represent Jesus and I want to love people,” he said.

Considering all the good Tebow has done personally and through his Tim Tebow Foundation, he’s nailed both of those things.

And that is far more important than any sport he plays.

• Bryan Chai | westernjournal.com