Time for Tim

In a country where every little Filipino connection is obsessively celebrated, it is amazing that Tim Tebow is relatively unknown. Not only was the American professional football player born in the Philippines, he is also among the most wildly popular athletes in the United States. He is likewise known for his Christian faith and has triggered a worldwide phenomenon called “Tebowing,” which has people in the strangest places aping his trademark football pose of kneeling on one leg after a touchdown, and posting the images online. Everywhere else, he is everywhere—but not here.

That should change. One of the good things that distinguish him from the others is his continuing devotion to charity work in the country of his birth. Together with CURE International, his Tim Tebow Foundation is building a 30-bed hospital for children in Davao City that will cost $3.1 million (or P134.4 million), with the two nonprofit organizations shouldering much of the costs. The hospital will provide medical services for children that the poor people of Davao cannot afford. “I’m very excited about the project,” Tebow has said. “This hospital will change the lives of thousands of children in the Philippines.”

And that is only his latest attempt to help Filipinos. Even when he was starting to become a prominent college athlete, Tebow managed to visit the Philippines with hardly anyone recognizing him—doubtless due to the relative obscurity of American football in a basketball-mad country. Without fanfare he would visit and help out at Uncle Dick’s Home, an orphanage in Surallah, South Cotabato, that his missionary father, Bob, founded in 1992. He would play with the orphans, teaching them to throw a football and generally serving as their inspiration—without benefit of publicity and promotions.

Even his beginnings were heartwarming. When his mother, Pam, herself a missionary, was pregnant with him, complications led doctors to suggest that she terminate the pregnancy. But she chose to carry the baby to full term, and in 1987 Tim Tebow was born in Makati City where he lived for three years. He grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, in the United States, where he was home-schooled and eventually became an athletic prodigy. Able to run as well as throw, he became hugely successful at the University of Florida, leading the Gators to two national championships and winning the Heisman Trophy as the best college football player in America.

Tebow’s unorthodox style led pundits to dismiss his prospects as a pro after he was picked 25th overall by the Denver Broncos in 2010. After starting his career as a backup, he became a national sensation—the buzz was dubbed “Tebowmania”—when he started for the Broncos in 2011, leading the team on an unprecedented playoff run punctuated by his fourth-quarter heroics. After being traded to the New York Jets earlier this year, Tebow now looks forward to the next stage in his sporting career.

But he was never just about the game. His frequent and potent comments about his being a Christian made him a charismatic and controversial subject, but amid all the fuss about his meteoric rise to stardom, he was never heard mentioning his charity work back in the Philippines as a means to gain attention.

There have been other athletes who spent their time in the American limelight but were not as giving or humble. The golfer Tiger Woods, for example, made waves and a fortune as a mixed-race athlete but never spoke up on important issues such as race and equality; subsequent revelations about his private behavior make him anything but a role model for young people. Tebow, on the other hand, has not shied away from the challenge of being a role model and has performed charity work without using it to burnish his image. In this country where many celebrities engage in not only entitled but also scandalous behavior in public, Tebow is an excellent example of what the young can achieve if they are clear-eyed, motivated and compassionate.

Here is one Filipino connection worthy of celebrating. The next time “Kuya Timmy” touches base with the orphans in Surallah, he should be recognized, not for his fame or fortune, but for how he has given of himself to helping our own indigent children. It’s not a pose, but a real person who truly knows how to give back. As he says, “I always have a special place in my heart for the country where I was born.”