
In 2007, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the first underclassmen to ever win the Heisman Trophy. This Super Bowl Sunday, he'll star in the first-ever Super Bowl ad funded by Christian anti-abortion group Focus on the Family.
Tebow will appear alongside his mother, Pam Tebow, in a 30-second spot with the theme "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." While the ad has not been released, reports suggest it will focus on Pam Tebow's decision to have Tim against doctors' orders. In 1987, she ignored advice to abort her fifth pregnancy, despite getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines. Tim Tebow survived the birth, and grew up to be a celebrated football player.
Tebow, who is expected to be selected in the NFL Draft this April, is religious. He began his 2007 Heisman acceptance speech by "thanking my lord and savior Jesus Christ, who gave me the ability to play football."
Super Bowl ads are reportedly selling for between $2.5 million and $2.8 million this year. Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, said in press release that funding for the ad came from "very generous and committed friends" who gave money specifically for the Tebow spot.
NobleCommentDecider
January 18, 2010 6:10 PM
So if he didn't win the Heisman abortion would've been OK?
The 2 1/2 million might be better spent if it was aimed at programs that helped poor women and the millions of kids living in poverty in the US instead of bs'ing a bunch of beer swilling football fans.
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texasspudro
January 18, 2010 6:12 PM
Wow, can't even believe the hypocrisy. Let me take you back to 2004 when a criticism of Bush's reckless deficits got pulled because CBS and other networks refused "political" advertising. Obviously we'll need to see the ad first before we know its anti abortion but this is a complete double standard.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/30/eveningnews/main597065.shtml
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a SC mom
January 19, 2010 12:39 AM in reply to texasspudro
great link!
"... "The network simply does not accept any advocacy advertising of any kind," says CBS Executive Vice President Martin Franks. ..."
Is Martin Franks still there??? I guess CBS changed their minds. And people still think there is a LIBRUL media.
'
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Sir Craig
January 18, 2010 6:13 PM
Well, then I guess Tim Tebow shouldn't get an abortion.
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ChasingUtley
January 18, 2010 6:45 PM
Yes, I'm so glad that Mrs. Tebow had the CHOICE to have Tim.
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ema
January 18, 2010 6:49 PM
And the very next ad should be:
"When Pam Tebow was pregnant, she had access to proper medical care and, in consultation with her Ob/Gyn and her family, she was able to make her own medical decision regarding her pregnancy.
Unfortunately, Pam Tebow and her sponsor Focus on the Family don't want you to have the same options as Ms. Tebow.
They want to deny you access to safe and effective medical care and have the government make medical decisions for you and force them on you.
Why do Pam Tebow and Focus on the Family love Big Government and why don't they trust women and their families to run their own lives?"
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WestRox
January 18, 2010 6:54 PM in reply to ema
W-O-R-D ! !
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Sailormarlowe
January 18, 2010 6:54 PM
Big Tim walk tall, stand proud. On cover of "In Touch Magazine" this month, it says: "We're glad we chose life." Tim in touch with Gospels, & heartland America.
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Matt Jones
January 18, 2010 6:59 PM in reply to Sailormarlowe
Glad to see he's in touch with you as well. Now, if the two of you could get in touch with reality, that'd be even better.
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ema
January 18, 2010 7:17 PM in reply to Sailormarlowe
Your assertion that the uterine containers are, in fact, not alive needs some, you know, serious support.
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jneufnash
January 18, 2010 7:42 PM in reply to Sailormarlowe
I bet Big Tim is also glad he went to Florida. Is that a reason to force everyone else to do that, too?
What an argument. I'm glad I did X. Therefore everybody should be forced to do X. And that's the most generous reading. What they said is, "I'm glad we CHOSE life." And, for some reason, it should follow from that that they are able to deny everybody else that choice. Or maybe the implication is meant to be, "I'm glad we chose life, but I wish we had been forced."
Crazy.
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Kuyleh
January 19, 2010 1:21 AM in reply to Sailormarlowe
You read In Touch? More proof you're a mental midget, as if we really needed any.
For the record, your "Gospels" don't say abortion is wrong. You know what it does say? A man approached Jesus and asked him what the punishment should be for causing an unborn child's death, as he'd done so.
Jesus told him to pay a fine. That's it. No condemnation, no statement that it was wrong...He told the man to hand over some money.
Keep your morals to yourself. It's not your body, and you have no right to tell others what to do. But have fun explaining to your god why you lied in his name!
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notoriousbvg
January 27, 2010 2:33 PM in reply to Kuyleh
This is flagrantly untrue. There is no such account in the gospels. What you are referring to is from Exodus 21. The situation described in that passage is men in a fight who accidentally knock into a woman which causes a miscarriage. A careful study of this passage shows that it is a difficult one to understand, and your re-interpretation is contextually erroneous, at best.
To take these words then propagate a false story about a man approaching Jesus, as recorded in the gospels shows that you do not take the time to investigate things you hear for yourself, and the fact that you would keep spreading this mythical gospel account shows a rather disingenuous intellectual mind.
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Miss Lady
January 18, 2010 7:27 PM
How pregnant was she when she doing doing missionary work in the Philippines?
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OceanDog
January 18, 2010 8:13 PM
I hope this "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life" plays between Hooters and Budweiser ads. Now *that's* really celebrating family and life for lots of people!
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Heather
January 18, 2010 8:26 PM
I think the point is that when you abort a child, you are aborting a real human being - a human being who could be a brain surgeon or a football star or a Nobel Prize winner... or the nice lady next door. We don't have the right to play God and decide who shall live and who shall not.
There are many, many people who would love to adopt the children these mothers are aborting. There is no reason for a woman to have to "suffer" with a child, other than the nine months she carries it.
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CyberDuckie
January 18, 2010 8:37 PM in reply to Heather
It's not about abortion. It's about a woman's right to choose. If you personally think it's wrong to have an abortion, then don't have one. But don't you dare try to tell me what I can and can't do with my own body.
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PJEvans
January 18, 2010 9:44 PM in reply to Heather
It's so nice you can't tell the difference between a real human and a potential human.
(I respect the few anti-abortion people who have actually adopted unwanted children. The rest, however ....)
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Atlas Scruggs
January 18, 2010 11:46 PM in reply to Heather
An embryo is not even a mosquito, much less a "real human being." If the gods value an embryo over an artichoke, why do they "murder" fifty percent of all "babies" before they're 48 hours old?
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Doug in Mount Vernon
January 19, 2010 12:49 PM in reply to Heather
Perhaps some of those "people who would love to adopt the children these mothers are aborting" are loving gay and lesbian couples! Excellent!
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CyberDuckie
January 18, 2010 8:34 PM
We need to stop referring to it as "anti-abortion" or "pro-life". Calling it as such can create a stigma surrounding pro-choicers: if pro-choicers are in opposition to anti-abortion activists/pro-lifers, then pro-choicers must also be pro-abortion. It's ridiculous, but it happens.
Let's start calling it what it really is - anti-choice. Let's make the distinction that the argument isn't about abortion, it's about a woman's right to choose.
Oh, and Tim Tebow should probably spend less time forcing his opinions onto others and more time training himself not to cry when he loses. Fucking pussy.
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kirenos
January 19, 2010 8:10 AM in reply to CyberDuckie
AMEN!
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franzi
January 18, 2010 8:49 PM
This ought to stop all of those spontaneous half-time abortions!
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franzi
January 18, 2010 8:54 PM
I know a lot of people who wouldn't have been sad if he HAD been aborted.
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Waltz
January 18, 2010 11:25 PM
Well said ema!
"When Pam Tebow was pregnant, she had access to proper medical care and, in consultation with her Ob/Gyn and her family, she was able to make her own medical decision regarding her pregnancy."
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Reality-based
January 18, 2010 11:32 PM
I'd respect him as a Christian a lot more if his eye black advertised Matthew 6:6 instead.
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ejg3
January 19, 2010 12:10 AM
If Pat Robertson were a Gator fan he'd be saying Alabama made a pact with the devil. I bet Tim isn't against the death penalty and consistently "Pro Life."
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Bubba1984
January 19, 2010 1:04 AM
The good liberals will send millions to save Haitian infants trapped in buildings but don't think twice about aborting eight month old babies.
Women don't have a "right' to abort babies any more than I have a right to shoot you because you are driving too slow on the freeway.
The US Supreme Court once held that black people were not "human" and thus had no rights. Rights come from God, not the Supreme Court. You can claim a baby inside the womb is not human, but every pregnant woman knows in her heart that it's a lie.
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Kuyleh
January 19, 2010 1:31 AM in reply to Bubba1984
Every woman? Who nominated you to speak for everyone? I had a child when I was 19...I put him up for adoption. Did I consider abortion? Yes, and Fuck anyone who condemns me for it. But that's not the point.
Why should I not have a right to do with my body what I will? Because your religion teaches you something? I believe, and I know many other women who do as well, that that tissue you're calling a baby is a human being when it can survive without the mother or a machine performing all it's bodily functions for it. Til then, it's tissue. And since it's tissue in my body, the only person who should have a say besides me is the man who helped create it.
So go on grandstanding. Call me a liar if you will. But remember that not everyone believes in your invisible man in the sky, and this country wasn't based on him either. So how about you keep your religious beliefs to yourself and we make our laws based on what we can prove? Or, if that's too much for you, how about you just mind your own business, and let other people mind theirs?
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Seeryer
January 19, 2010 12:02 PM in reply to Bubba1984
Bubba,
The percentage of abortions that are done 8 months or longer into a pregnacy are less than 3%. Women do have a right to abort fetuses. Check Roe vs Wade. Now find the similar Supreme Court case that ok's shooting slow drivers on the freeway. You can claim that women who elect to have abortions are murderers but that does not make it true. I can claim that you should have been aborted, whcih may or may not be true.
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ema
January 19, 2010 1:13 PM in reply to Bubba1984
Do you have any evidence to support your bizarre assertion that female patients don't give due consideration to their medical decisions? Also, you do know that elective thirds trimester abortions are illegal in this country, yes?
And since you, inadvertently (heh!) brought up therapeutic third trimester abortions, what percentage of the total terminations performed in this country do they represent, if any, and why are they relevant to any discussion of policy?
Women don't have a "right' to abort babies any more than I have a right to shoot you because you are driving too slow on the freeway.
Your murder fantasies aside, are other motorists not equipped with vital functions like breathing, etc. and are they part of your internal organs, do they become established via a mechanism indistinguishable from that of a tumorous growth, and does having them as part of your internal organs significantly increase your risk of morbidity and mortality? Because if not, your example doesn't make any sense.
Last but not least, which god exactly and can you show who exactly is claiming that the fetal component of a woman's pregnancy is, you know, of a different species?
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Joe
January 19, 2010 7:52 AM
Wow, the same CBS that allows Focus on the Family ads is the same CBS that rejected ads from the United Church of Christ because they were "too liberal".
I guess CBS means "Conservative B. S."
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Heraldblog
January 19, 2010 8:35 AM
"The US Supreme Court once held that black people were not "human".."
The Dred Scott decision was based on strict constructionism, BTW. If there were a few more liberal, activist judges on the court then, Scott would have remained free.
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JadeZ
January 19, 2010 10:21 AM
Mandate that these anti women people like the exhibitionist football player, adopt a Haitian refugee child and see how fast they argue that saving those children isn't gods will.
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Daniel Doyle
January 19, 2010 12:34 PM
This is so good. I agree 100%. People should not abort fetuses because the fetus might one day be an awesome Florida Gator QB. Let's take a chomp out of abortion rights, what say?
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LeaningLeft
February 4, 2010 12:16 PM
I won't know if I'm for or against this until I see the ad. If the ad advocates making abortion illegal, I'll be against it. Because, it will be advocating taking someone's rights away from them. If it advocates women CHOOSING not to get an abortion, then I'm fine with it. Because isn't that the point? We believe in a woman's legal right to choose. We also believe in a person's legal right to free speech including attempting to convince those willing to listen of his/her point of view. This could be just a person/group (albeit one that most people on this site disagree with on most, if not all, issues) exercising their freedom of speech.
I'll forgo the trite quote misattributed to Voltaire.
As for CBS’s handling of the issue, I just attribute that to a massive corporation fumbling along in an attempt to not have any bad publicity, but failing miserably at the whole thing. I expect no less.
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Tosh
May 21, 2010 4:51 PM
The good liberals will send millions to save Haitian infants trapped in buildings but don't think twice about aborting eight month old babies.
Women don't have a "right' to abort babies any more than I have a right to shoot you because you are driving too slow on the freeway.
The US Supreme Court once held that black people were not "human" and thus had no rights. Rights come from God, not the Supreme Court. You can claim a baby inside the womb is not human, but every pregnant woman knows in her heart that it's a lie.
cialis lovegra
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