Chuck Norris has guaranteed Tim Tebow will succeed in the NFL and has urged an NFL team–particularly the Jacksonville Jaguars–to sign him.
He writes that Tebow is a “UCP” (ultimate clutch player), and a “winner — plain and simple!”
“I have been following Tim since he became a QB for the University of Florida Gators, and I never have seen a more determined or inspiring athlete to play the game of football,” Norris writes in a Thursday column for Newsbusters. “I’ve heard the critics say Tebow has poor technical skills, but the truth is that Tim is a natural leader, an amazingly gifted football player, an inspiration to his team and the possessor of intense determination and strategy to bring any team to victory — no matter what the odds. One can improve technique, but leadership is innate.
“That is why I believe that Tebow could be a superstar and legend in the NFL.”
Norris said Tebow reminds him of himself when he competed in martial arts because “Tebow is a player who rises to the occasion and delivers big in critical moments.”
“I would spar with my black belts in class, and sometimes they would outscore me,” Norris said. “Yet in the tournaments, I would defeat them. My students used to ask me, ‘Why is it that we can contend equally against you in class but can’t beat you in the tournaments?’ My answer was always the same: ‘When it counts, I rise to the occasion.'”
The martial arts legend who has endorsed Republican presidential candidates like Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee said he thinks Jacksonville would be the perfect home for Tebow.
The New York Jets recently released Tebow and teams may be hesitant to sign him because of the strong devotion of his fans, inspired largely in part by his Christian faith.
“No warrior can prove his worth if kept from the battlefield,” Norris writes.