Tebow To Manziel How The Two Biggest Faces In College Football Lived Two Different Lives
I sat down to watch the new Johnny Manziel documentary that came out on Netflix on August 8th, and next to me was a book that I was reading titled Shaken written by Tim Tebow.
The documentary on Manziel was all about his struggles in life from alcohol to drugs and a lot more distributing things while the book written by Tebow was all about fighting through life's storms and how God will always be there to help you.
I couldn't stop thinking that the two biggest faces in college football over the last 20 years lived two totally different lives, and how they handled the rise to stardom in different ways.
There have been so many great college football players over the past few years, but nothing was like Tebow and Manziel on and off the field.
Tim Tebow
Tebow was a homeschool kid from Jacksonville Florida and decided to stay in his home state and play for the Florida Gators.
Tebow didn't start his freshman year but did get to play in a handful of games with special packages. The Gators went on to beat Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game in Tebow's freshman season, and then he would get the keys to the starting job his sophomore year.
Tebow would go on and win the Heisman Trophy in his sophomore year, and the rest was history. He became the biggest face in college football and watching him was must-watch television. Tebow was a stud and sometimes it looked like he was a man playing against boys that is how dominant he was.
Tebow's junior year was one that nobody will ever forget and it doesn't have much to do with his playing ability. On September 27th, 2008 Ole Miss walked into Gainesville Florida and beat the Gators 31-30.
After the game, Tebow had one of the greatest speeches you will ever see and it is even called the promise speech.
Tebow showed a lot of guts making that speech and a lot of pro athletes wouldn't even do that let alone a 20-year-old college kid. He had the passion and will to win and he was a team player first.
Tebow also would wear eye black under his eyes and he would put the bible verse Philippians 4:13 on it. Tebow is a man of god and he is always looking to spread the name of Jesus.
Florida would go on to play Oklahoma in the title game that season and Tebow made a change to his eye black. Instead of Philippians 4:13, he put John 3:16 under it and there was a huge storm coming. The Gators would go on to claim their second title in three years but that wasn't the biggest thing that came out of that night.
Tebow found out a few days later that over 90 million people googled John 3:16 during the game. Tebow brought over 90 million people together to read a bible verse and to praise the lord.
The Gators would go on and lose to Alabama in the SEC title game in Tebow's senior season, and one of the most iconic clips ever came out of that game with Tebow kneeling on the sidelines crying and on the opposite sidelines the Alabama players doing the Gator chomp.
Tebow would get drafted by the Denver Broncos and had a short-lived NFL career and then went and played minor league baseball for the New York Mets for a few seasons.
Tebow does so much charity work and has so many great events to help others and to spread the lord's name. He was a great player on the field but an even better human off the field.
Tebow used his success to help others and made sure to get too big for anyone. Tebow could have gone an entitled different way when he became a household name better he never let that get the best of him.
Johnny Manziel
Someone who did have an issue with fame was Johnny Football. Manziel came into college football a few seasons after Tebow had left and he became the new huge face his sophomore year.
Manziel would quarterback the Texas A&M Aggies in 2012, and that was a huge year for the school because it was the first year they were in the SEC. The Aggies left the Big 12 after going 7-6 in 2011 and would join the best conference in college football.
Many people thought they were in for it, and the first game for the Aggies and Manziel in 2012 was against the Florida Gators which they lost by three points.
Texas A&M would go on to play some great football that season and they would only lose another game to LSU.
The Aggies went to Alabama in the middle of November to play the defending champs and that is when Johnny Football was born. If you didn't know who he was before you knew who he was after he beat Alabama and became the new face of college football.
Johnny would go on to win the Heisman Trophy and then he became a celebrity. Manziel was everywhere. He was partying and hanging out with so many celebrities. He was going on every talk show in the world and he was just one big party animal that wanted to be a celebrity more than a football player.
Johnny would go on to play his final season at A&M in 2013 and then would be drafted by the Cleveland Browns in April of 2014. Manziel wanted no part of playing football and only cared about the party life.
Manziel's NFL life was over in just two short years and I don't think he even cared.
Johnny was at the party, and that's all he wanted to do. The man went to Las Vegas the night before a Browns game and put a wig on, and called himself Billy that's how bad of a problem he had.
I will say Manziel was much watch TV just like Tebow, and you can't say that about many college football players.
Manziel built the A&M football program and if it wasn't for him the program would not be where it is today.
Let's be honest for a second college football doesn't have many must-watch players, and the product is not very good, but Tebow and Manziel made you turn on your television set every Saturday in the fall.
There have been tons of great players since these two have stepped onto a college football field, but these two were just different. They lived really two different lives off the field, but on the field, they put on the show week in and week out.
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