As football fans watch former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel unravel before our very eyes, it’s worth reporting when former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow continues to prove nice guys can make a difference.
“I was traveling on Delta Airlines Flight Number 1772 from Atlanta, Georgia to Phoenix, Arizona when there was a medical emergency on board,” wrote Richard Gotti on his Facebook page. “An older gentleman began having what appeared to be heart problems, and he went unconscious.”
Gotti says he watched a variety of passengers help the man for over an hour as he received “shock after shock” from an AED machine. He says the crew “were amazing” as they kept everyone calm, even as they struggled to keep the man alive.
Tim Tebow comforts a family after a medical emergency on board a Delta flight.
“Then all of a sudden, I observed a guy walking down the aisle,” wrote Gotti. “That guy was Tim Tebow. He met with the family as they cried on his shoulder. I watched Tim pray with the entire section of the plane for this man.”
Medical workers met the flight at the gate when it landed at its destination in Phoenix. Tebow helped the family get off the plane, picked up their luggage, and went with them to the hospital. He waited with them until they got the news that the man had passed away. The man, in his 60s, was traveling with his wife and her friend.
Tebow had taken the time to be with a random family in their darkest hour of need.
“Thank God that we still have people of faith who in times of difficulty look to the Lord,” wrote Gotti.
Tebow, 28, has been mocked relentlessly through the years. But in reality, in this age of reporting on every celebrity and athlete who goes off the rails, let’s give him some well deserved credit.
“Our purpose is to bring faith, hope and love to those in their darkest hour of need,” said Tebow in February. “And those people are everywhere. You just have to open your eyes to see them.”
You don’t have to share Tebow’s faith to recognize he is trying to make humanity better. He talks the talk and walks the walk, and we can all be inspired by it.