“… if things don’t work out, the amount of time it’ll take you to go from being a hired gun to a cocktail party joke can be clocked with an egg timer.”
~Leo Solomon – The American President~
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Reading the newspaper I stumbled onto the sports page and read a quick blurb about Tim Tebow. My first thoughts, “Whatever happened to Tebow? Where is he now?”
Eighteen months ago, Tebow was ‘the man‘ and ‘the hype.’ During his main playing days at Denver, one could either look to the heavens and pronounce God was real or this man was graced with an extraordinary amount of pure luck and should buy a lottery ticket. Theoretically, if you make an NFL team’s roster, the average career lasts approximately six years. Mr. Tebow’s career ended in three, barely throwing a pass during the last season.
Jerry Glanville coined the now-famous phrase “NFL means ‘not for long.” In truth, I personally cannot perform anything memorable on a football field, but I might be a great leader off the field. In the end, Tebow was exactly like you and I. And that means, ‘not for long.’ In the NFL, you have to win. You can be a total idiot, bring an entire fan club, even bring a chorus of angels. But on game day, you have to win.
Off the field, I commend Tebow, for whatever you think of his football skills, you cannot deny his leadership. He is a famously outspoken Christian. and according to various print material, has nearly raised the $3.1 million required for a world-class orthopedic facility in the Philippines that is scheduled for a 2014 opening.
The lesson? It’s important to remember all things are temporary; impermanence is an undeniable and inescapable fact of human existence. Almost everything is subject to change. We are here today and gone tomorrow.
We should be like Tebow, for while Tebow’s NFL career may be over, he proves leadership and grace can be fulcrum for those in need. Recognize where personal effort can make lasting impacts. These are the fights worth fighting.