Tebow clarifies he knelt for religious reasons, not during anthem
New York Mets farmhand and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow made sure to clear up an issue Friday in regard to kneeling during the national anthem.
The 30-year-old said he's never knelt during the national anthem and he didn't want his famous "Tebowing" pose to be construed that way.
"I think that's sometimes one of the things that's a little bit sad is sometimes people will just try to create something that had zero truth," Tebow said Friday before playing for the Mets' Double-A affiliate Binghamton Rumble Ponies, according to USA TODAY's Josh Peter. "I never did anything during a national anthem but stand and support my country. And then stories can get written and they can get put out of proportion so that you believe one thing when you're asking me a question that was nothing that was part of the truth."
His comments come after an image of the former quarterback kneeling, accompanied by text which insinuates he did so during the national anthem in 2012, recently began making the rounds. One of the more popular social media accounts to share the photo was rapper T.I. on Instagram.
Tebow, who has since made the move to baseball and started in left field for Binghamton on Friday, revisited why he knelt, reminding people it was something he did because of his religious beliefs.
"A lot of people even think it was a touchdown celebration," he said. "I never did it to celebrate a touchdown. I did it from my sophomore year in high school all the way through the NFL, that before and after games I would get on a knee to thank my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and also put things into perspective.
"It was never something I did to take away from somebody else. It was just something I did with a personal relationship with my God. So I think that's just sometimes disappointing when things get taken away from the truth and then it's just created into whatever somebody wants it to be."
In his first season at the Double-A level since signing a professional baseball contract with the Mets in 2016, Tebow owns a .716 OPS with 21 RBIs in 51 games.