When US college football star Tim Tebow plays in next week’s national championship game, his most far-flung fans will be not only cheering him on, but trying to understand which sport he’s playing.
The 42 kids in the southern Philippines orphanage vaguely understand he is famous. But in a country where basketball, boxing and billiards are king, college football isn’t on the map.
The staff and children at Uncle Dick’s Home — founded by Tebow’s father Bob — mistook the football that Tebow brought during a three-day visit in March for a rugby ball.
PHOTO: AFP
They were initiated into the sport by a tape Tebow brought. Since then they have tried to get up to speed by watching games on TV and they hope to watch Tebow’s University of Florida Gators play Oklahoma in the BCS national championship game.
However they’re just not sure yet if it will be on TV live on Friday morning (Thursday night in the US) or if they will have to track down a tape afterward.
And they’re still fuzzy on this newfound sport — even Tebow’s number and jersey colors. Rhodaleaf Catuto, the daughter of orphanage director Raymunda Gauran, ventured white and green for the latter.
The Gators are white and blue, and No. 15 is a hot-seller nationwide, but that doesn’t matter at the orphanage, where Tebow is just known as Kuya — Big Brother — Tim.
“He’s just a very simple guy,” Mrs Gauran said. “He plays with the kids.”
Tebow has visited the orphanage several times.
After all, his roots began there.
He was born when his mother left the town of General Santos near the orphanage and went to a hospital in Manila where she gave birth to her fifth child. She and her husband, longtime missionaries, told him he was a “miracle” baby as he was growing up, and he seems determined to live up to it.
In addition to his football exploits, which brought him the first Heisman Trophy ever given to a sophomore and carried him to a third-place finish in the voting in his just-completed junior season, Tebow has also made missionary trips to Croatia and Thailand, working with underprivileged youth and visiting hospitals and prisons.
While the skeptical wonder if a guy really can be this good, Mrs.
Gauran has no doubts.
“He’s a great preacher,” she said. “People just listen to him.”
Getting there is an ordeal — a five-hour flight from Florida to the US West Coast, about 14 hours to Manila, a short flight to General Santos, then 130km by rugged road to the compound.
His father no longer makes the trip, but Tebow is committed to it. On his last visit, he was invited to assist doctors with some medical procedures.
“It was a great experience for me,” Tebow said after returning home. “Doing those things, taking my platform as a football player and using it for good, using it to be an influence and change people’s lives, that’s more important than football to me.”
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
RSS