WATCH: Tim Tebow Denounces ‘Selfish Culture,’ Says College Athletes Should Not Get Paid

Tim Tebow
AP Photo/John Raoux
Warner Todd Huston

Appearing on ESPN’s First Take, Heisman Trophy winner and minor league baseball player Tim Tebow spoke out against the growing call to pay college athletes.

“I feel like I have a little credibility and knowledge about this,” Tebow told the hosts, “because when I was at the University of Florida, I think my jersey was one of the top selling Jerseys around the world. It was like Kobe, LeBron, and I was right behind them and I didn’t make a dollar from it — but nor did I want to.”

Tebow went on:

Because I knew going into college what it was all about. I knew going to Florida — my dream school where I wanted to go, the passion for it. And if I could support my team, support my college, support my university, that’s what it’s all about.

But paying players changes that dynamic, Tebow insisted:

But now we’re changing it from us, from we, from my university, from being an alumni where I care which makes college football and college sports special, to then, “OK, it’s not about us, it’s not about we, it’s just about me.”

And, yes, I know we live in a selfish culture where it’s all about us, but we’re just adding and piling onto that. Where it changes what’s special about college football. We turn it into the NFL where who has the most money, that’s where you go.

That’s why people are more passionate about college sports than they are about the NFL. That’s why the stadiums are bigger in college than they are in the NFL. Because it’s about your team, it’s about your university, it’s about where my family wanted to go, it’s about where my grandfather had a dream of seeing Florida winning an SEC championship. And you’re taking that away so that young kids can earn a dollar. And that’s just not what I feel like college football needs to go. There’s that opportunity in the NFL, but not in college football.

Tim Tebow is definitely a “no” on paying college athletes.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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