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Lonestar
05-10-2010, 06:18 PM
Tim Tebow's mom reaps fruit of labor of love
By Lindsay H. Jones
The Denver Post
POSTED: 05/09/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT


In the months leading up to the NFL draft, Tebow jetted around the country making friends and influencing strangers. No, not Tim Tebow, the Broncos' rookie quarterback and Denver's newest celebrity athlete.

It was his mother, Pam, who, thanks to her youngest son's stardom, has become a much-sought-after public speaker for parenting and women's organizations, evangelical Christian groups and pro-life events, making her one of the most high-profile mothers of a professional athlete in the country.

"For 25 years, she's pretty much put her life on hold for me and my siblings," Tim said. "She invested in our lives — we were her No. 1 priority, and nothing else really mattered.

"Now, she's getting to do a lot of things she loves to do too with the speaking and the writing and the traveling. She loves it, though I still don't think she loves it as much as she loved raising all her kids."

Her speaking engagements have taken her across the Southeast, not far from the Tebow family home in Jacksonville, Fla., to as far as South Dakota and Washington state.

"I think she's been more places than me," Tim said.

For nearly four decades, Pam lived a mostly anonymous life, joining her husband, Bob — they will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2011 — in his missionary work in Southeast Asia, then raising their five children (two daughters and three sons) outside Jacksonville. Once Tim left home and became one of the most celebrated collegiate football players in history while at the University of Florida, Pam began shedding her anonymity, going public with her beliefs about how to raise children.

She and Tim were featured in a 30-second Super Bowl commercial for Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family that focused on her high-risk pregnancy and Tim's birth in 1987 while the family was living in the Philippines.

The commercial brought controversy, as well as scrutiny.

"We're careful about what we do; we don't champion every cause," Pam said. "But this was important for us."

In addition to her speaking engagements, Pam is writing a book about parenting, addressing issues she has always cared about, though rarely talked about outside the family. Tim's fame has given her a national platform.

"We have to be intentional about the way we mother and parent," she said in a phone interview from her home. "We have to have a plan and a target, a goal for them, an idea in mind of how you want them to end up."

In 1982, the Tebows made the decision that Pam would educate their children at home in a faith-based curriculum they could tailor to each child.

For Tim, it became clear to Pam very early that to engage her youngest child in school, she would need to involve sports somehow. So, reading lessons included books about sports and later, biographies of famous athletes. Science projects related to sports too, such as when Tim wrote a report on why athletes needed more protein. Not only did he win first place in a local science fair with that project, he convinced his mother to allow him to drink protein shakes.

"She was a great teacher. I love listening to her talk, tell stories. She was always a very sweet teacher — it took a lot for her to get frustrated," Tim said. "She's continuing to teach, even now that I'm in the NFL, she's still teaching me all the time, showing me how to do things, correcting my grammar."

As the youngest child, Tim had three years of his mother's undivided attention when the last of his older siblings, brother Peter, left for college. That time cemented an already strong bond between mother and son, helpful as Tim began to gain national attention for his football feats while playing at Nease High School, a public school near Jacksonville. Almost from the moment he entered Florida, Tebow was in the national spotlight.
But for Pam, football never overwhelmed the rest of family life, even in 2007 when Tim became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy, or in 2008, when Tim led the Gators to a national championship, or this spring, when he was the most scrutinized player in the NFL draft.

"If we were only focusing on him, then it would have been crazier," Pam said. "But I have four other kids and four grandkids; I'm traveling a lot to speak. He's really not the center of attention in our family, and that's the best thing."

The Tebow family will celebrate Mother's Day while on vacation in Europe, sans Tim, who stayed behind in Memphis, Tenn., working out and studying the Broncos' playbook to get ready for the rest of the team's offseason program, which resumes May 17.

Bob and Pam Tebow and the rest of the family will surely be in the stands at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium when the Broncos open the 2010 season Sept. 12 against their hometown Jaguars, and they will be making plenty of trips to the Rocky Mountains to watch Tim play, whenever that time comes. It is hard for Pam to describe how proud she is of each of her children, all of whom graduated from college and are active in various ministry groups.

For Tim, the feeling is mutual. This week, in a phone interview, he recalled how he broke down in tears at a family Christmas gathering when he tried to relate why he loved his mother. That was only two years ago.

"She has a great testimony and a great platform to do it," Tim said. "God has rewarded her by allowing her to be able to do that, and I'm proud of her."

Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com

arapaho2
05-10-2010, 06:21 PM
Tim Tebow's mom reaps fruit of labor of love
By Lindsay H. Jones
The Denver Post
POSTED: 05/09/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT


In the months leading up to the NFL draft, Tebow jetted around the country making friends and influencing strangers. No, not Tim Tebow, the Broncos' rookie quarterback and Denver's newest celebrity athlete.

It was his mother, Pam, who, thanks to her youngest son's stardom, has become a much-sought-after public speaker for parenting and women's organizations, evangelical Christian groups and pro-life events, making her one of the most high-profile mothers of a professional athlete in the country.

"For 25 years, she's pretty much put her life on hold for me and my siblings," Tim said. "She invested in our lives — we were her No. 1 priority, and nothing else really mattered.

"Now, she's getting to do a lot of things she loves to do too with the speaking and the writing and the traveling. She loves it, though I still don't think she loves it as much as she loved raising all her kids."

Her speaking engagements have taken her across the Southeast, not far from the Tebow family home in Jacksonville, Fla., to as far as South Dakota and Washington state.

"I think she's been more places than me," Tim said.

For nearly four decades, Pam lived a mostly anonymous life, joining her husband, Bob — they will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2011 — in his missionary work in Southeast Asia, then raising their five children (two daughters and three sons) outside Jacksonville. Once Tim left home and became one of the most celebrated collegiate football players in history while at the University of Florida, Pam began shedding her anonymity, going public with her beliefs about how to raise children.

She and Tim were featured in a 30-second Super Bowl commercial for Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family that focused on her high-risk pregnancy and Tim's birth in 1987 while the family was living in the Philippines.

The commercial brought controversy, as well as scrutiny.

"We're careful about what we do; we don't champion every cause," Pam said. "But this was important for us."

In addition to her speaking engagements, Pam is writing a book about parenting, addressing issues she has always cared about, though rarely talked about outside the family. Tim's fame has given her a national platform.

"We have to be intentional about the way we mother and parent," she said in a phone interview from her home. "We have to have a plan and a target, a goal for them, an idea in mind of how you want them to end up."

In 1982, the Tebows made the decision that Pam would educate their children at home in a faith-based curriculum they could tailor to each child.

For Tim, it became clear to Pam very early that to engage her youngest child in school, she would need to involve sports somehow. So, reading lessons included books about sports and later, biographies of famous athletes. Science projects related to sports too, such as when Tim wrote a report on why athletes needed more protein. Not only did he win first place in a local science fair with that project, he convinced his mother to allow him to drink protein shakes.

"She was a great teacher. I love listening to her talk, tell stories. She was always a very sweet teacher — it took a lot for her to get frustrated," Tim said. "She's continuing to teach, even now that I'm in the NFL, she's still teaching me all the time, showing me how to do things, correcting my grammar."

As the youngest child, Tim had three years of his mother's undivided attention when the last of his older siblings, brother Peter, left for college. That time cemented an already strong bond between mother and son, helpful as Tim began to gain national attention for his football feats while playing at Nease High School, a public school near Jacksonville. Almost from the moment he entered Florida, Tebow was in the national spotlight.
But for Pam, football never overwhelmed the rest of family life, even in 2007 when Tim became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy, or in 2008, when Tim led the Gators to a national championship, or this spring, when he was the most scrutinized player in the NFL draft.

"If we were only focusing on him, then it would have been crazier," Pam said. "But I have four other kids and four grandkids; I'm traveling a lot to speak. He's really not the center of attention in our family, and that's the best thing."

The Tebow family will celebrate Mother's Day while on vacation in Europe, sans Tim, who stayed behind in Memphis, Tenn., working out and studying the Broncos' playbook to get ready for the rest of the team's offseason program, which resumes May 17.

Bob and Pam Tebow and the rest of the family will surely be in the stands at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium when the Broncos open the 2010 season Sept. 12 against their hometown Jaguars, and they will be making plenty of trips to the Rocky Mountains to watch Tim play, whenever that time comes. It is hard for Pam to describe how proud she is of each of her children, all of whom graduated from college and are active in various ministry groups.

For Tim, the feeling is mutual. This week, in a phone interview, he recalled how he broke down in tears at a family Christmas gathering when he tried to relate why he loved his mother. That was only two years ago.

"She has a great testimony and a great platform to do it," Tim said. "God has rewarded her by allowing her to be able to do that, and I'm proud of her."

Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com

reminds me of that movie....Bubble Boy

WARHORSE
05-10-2010, 08:39 PM
Reminds me of good christian values.

OrangeHoof
05-10-2010, 09:26 PM
Her "fruit" is going to collect millions of dollars in the next few months. Perhaps that's a stronger anti-abortion message than the Super Bowl ad.

Dirk
05-11-2010, 05:27 AM
Her "fruit" is going to collect millions of dollars in the next few months. Perhaps that's a stronger anti-abortion message than the Super Bowl ad.

:tsk:

SOCALORADO.
05-11-2010, 07:48 AM
Her "fruit" is going to collect millions of dollars in the next few months. Perhaps that's a stronger anti-abortion message than the Super Bowl ad.

:tsk:

xzn
05-11-2010, 11:28 AM
Her "fruit" is going to collect millions of dollars in the next few months. Perhaps that's a stronger anti-abortion message than the Super Bowl ad.

Open mouth, insert hoof..