Tim Tebow Holds Giveaway for Twitter Followers
New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow surprised his Twitter followers late last week by starting a spur of the moment trivia competition, in which the winner received items autographed by two other football stars.
On Friday, the quarterback said via Twitter that he had just received a "VIP kit" for the NCAA Football 13 video game, which included the game and two miniature helmets that had been signed by fellow Heisman Trophy winners Barry Sanders and Robert Griffin III. He then asked three questions, and the first of his followers to get the answer right received the prize package.
Looking back to his college days at the University of Florida, Tebow asked, "When I threw my first ever jump pass as a Gator, who was it against, who caught it & what was the final score in that game?"
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The winner of the contest was Daniel Jackson, a Gainesville, Fla., resident, who correctly guessed the answers: Louisiana State University, Tate Casey and a score of 23-10 in favor of the Gators. Tebow, a freshman at the time, made the pass as a limited snap quarterback behind then starting senior quarterback, Chris Leak.
"Congrats to @jacksond09 for the win, also great move by @TimTebow for giving back to the fans," said Phil Power, a Tebow follower, after the contest ended. Another follower, Lane Smith, suggested Tebow should give out signed footballs of his own every week through a trivia competition.
Both Sanders and Griffin also offered the same prize package to their Twitter followers late last week.
EA Sports, the company behind the video game, is set to launch it during a live webcast that will air from 3-9 p.m. ET on Monday. The NCAA Football video game series has been around for nearly two decades, beginning with the release of College Football 95 in 1994.
In the newest addition to the franchise, gamers will be able to take any one of a number of Heisman Trophy winners from the past and put them on any team they would like, which may not sit well with loyal Gator fans who would hate to see Tebow in any colors other than their orange and blue. Tebow won the Heisman in 2007, and his video game character is being made available as a special offer for those who pre-ordered the game through Game Stop stores.
Another EA Sports production, Madden NFL 2013, captured headlines recently after announcing that "Tebowing" – the act of praying on one knee in public that began when fans noticed Tebow's sideline prayers in 2011 – would somehow be included in game.
Tebow has said that praying on the sidelines before games has been a practice of his for the last seven years, into his days as a college athlete. Only after he became wildly popular as the Denver Broncos starting quarterback last season, he says, did people really start taking notice.
Madden NFL 2013 is slated to be released on Aug. 28 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and XBOX 360.
