Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow became a college football phenomenon for the University of Florida before going on to a professional football career as notable for the ballyhoo around his religion as for his on-field performance. The son of evangelical missionaries, Tebow came of age in Florida and garnered his first national looks as a Florida Gator. He proved dominant as a run/pass quarterback and won the 2007 Heisman Trophy. He guided the Gators to the national title in 2008 and drew as much media attention for his on-field proselytization of evangelical Christianity. Graduating in 2009, Tebow was drafted by the National Football League's Denver Broncos. He mostly rode the bench in his first season - his less-than-stellar passing skills proving a wet blanket on early media adulation - but became Denver's starter early in the 2011 campaign. He led a string of comeback victories that briefly reignited his Golden Boy status and gave rise to the internet meme and neologism, "Tebowing," e.g. publicly kneeling in prayer. With Denver's acquisition of future Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning in 2012, the Broncos traded Tebow to the New York Jets, where he saw little playing time. Hailed by fans as an exemplar of "American values," derided by critics as an overpaid backup, Tebow's religious celebrity made him as much an icon of America's "culture war" as a star athlete.