And last night, during an appearance on The Daily Show to tout his new book, Through My Eyes, he took another step toward winning fans' hearts and minds. See the video below.
The contrast between this segment and his chat earlier this week on Sean Hannity's Fox News program could not be more stark. While Hannity focused on the book's gazillion references to Christianity and Tebow's pro-life Super Bowl ad for Focus on the Family, Jon Stewart, the Daily Show's host, struck a much lighter tone.
After Tebow mentioned his foundation's support of roughly 600 orphans in the Philippines, Stewart deadpanned, "You seem like a real asshole" -- a zinger whose time had come. He also referenced Tebow's joke to Florida coach Urban Meyer that he deserved a piece of his bonus and got Timmy to weigh in on the memorabilia-for-tattoos controversy at Ohio State that led to the resignation of that school's coach, Jim Tressel. Tebow suggested that college footballers deserved some walking-around money, so they could afford to eat at Outback and ride a scooter around campus, prompting Stewart to ask if he was talking about Dennis the Menace.
Tebow handled such needlings with his usual good nature, coming across as more fun and less pious than usual. The result will likely earn him more votes of confidence from the Broncos fan base, if not the coaching staff that will actually decide who'll start under center for Denver once the games finally get underway again. Here's the clip:
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