Gator Golden Boy Steps on Pro-Choice Toes with Controversial Superbowl Ad

image via knightnews.com

Before even stepping foot in any NFL stadium or combine, Tim Tebow is already making a bad first impression on the league. But is he untouchable? He is, after all, still in college.

Ah, Super Sunday. No one loves it more than I do, even if my team is watching from home this year. What could ruin such a special day? Someone trying to preach to you about the gift of life, that’s what. These people refer to themselves as “pro-life,” but I call them “anti-abortion.” The other way makes its opposing party seem to be pro-death, a willful distortion on the part of anti-abortion advocates.

Somewhat-overrated college football star Tim Tebow came on screen Super Sunday with momma ‘Bow to tell the story about how she was advised during her pregnancy to abort the future Heisman-winner because of serious medical concerns. Surprisingly enough, the commercial didn’t even drop the a-bomb, and except for the sight of Timmy’s face, wasn’t too insulting.

Funded by the conservative evangelical group Focus On The Family, the commercial was thirty seconds long and cost a reported three million dollars. CBS has faced criticism for agreeing to show the ad, as it rightly should have.

I’m not saying commercials must or should be crass and involve bikinis and beer, but frankly, the Super Bowl is like polite conversation: no religion or politics. Tebow broke both rules.

At The University of Florida, student-athletes must abide by a set of guidelines as determined by the university, as they must at any other school. According to the UF Student-Athlete agreement:

A student-athlete shall not be eligible for participation in intercollegiate athletics if the individual accepts any renumeration for or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind.

But Tim Tebow is no longer a participating student-athlete since his pitiful performance at the Senior Bowl (with only fifty passing yards), so does this apply to him? In this writer’s opinion, yes, yes it does. He will probably be attending his alma mater’s Pro Day and (former?) Coach Urban Meyer will surely be spanking his prodigy’s buns as he crosses the white lines for the NFL combine.

Also, let’s consider that Tim Tebow has gotten a lot of screen time over the past three years, and is currently just about the most high-profile representative of his university.

It’s too much to ask for more than a week without hearing about Tebow, and even though he’s a known pushy evangelical, I wonder if he just couldn’t handle the minimal time out of the limelight.

And so, Judgment came sandwiched between beer commercials on Sunday, but it was nice to remember that there’s only one city in the whole country that likes hearing from this particular spokesman, and they live in a self-proclaimed “Swamp.”

Life goes on, but Tebow’s career probably won’t. I for one take some solace in that.