NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Professional baseball player Tim Tebow visits "Fox & Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on October 09, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow says that he would rather be known for saving babies from abortion than for his achievements on the field.
Tebow, a Christian athlete who is currently a professional baseball player, spoke to an audience of about 1,200 pro-lifers at a football-themed banquet for Kansans for Life earlier this month, according to National Right to Life News.
"It really does mean a lot more than winning the Super Bowl," Tebow, who won the Heisman Trophy and led his team to two college football national championships, told the crowd. "One day, when you look back and people are talking about you and they say, 'Oh my gosh what are you going to be known for? Are you going to say Super Bowl, or we saved a lot of babies?'"
The issue of abortion is a personal part of Tebow's own story, as his mom shared in a 2010 Super Bowl commercial for Focus on the Family, calling him her "miracle baby."
He recounted that story at the pro-life banquet.
"You see, my mom 32 years ago had doctors tell her she needed to abort me because if she didn't, it was going to cost her life. And they didn't even believe that I was a baby," he said. "They thought I was a tumor."
But he added, "When I was born, they found out the placenta wasn’t actually attached. So, the doctor looked at my mom after 37 years of being a doctor and said, ‘This is the biggest miracle I’ve ever seen because I’m not sure how he’s alive.’ …I’m so grateful that my mom trusted God with my life and her life.”
Tebow, 32, whose name means "to honor God," shared how his parents prayed that he would be a preacher but instead got a quarterback.
But the man who was mocked for Tebowing and wearing "John 3:16" on his eye black has been a preacher in his own right.
“What you’re doing here matters," he concluded. "You’re fighting for life. You’re fighting for people that can’t fight for themselves. And my question to you is: Are you willing to stand up in the face of persecution, in the face of adversity, in the face of criticism, when other people are going to say it’s not worth it, when other people won’t stand beside you?"
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