Tim Tebow was featured last week in a "Saturday Night Live" skit, but could the real Denver Broncos quarterback be coming to the show?
It's just a rumor, but Bonnie Fuller's Hollywood Life.com is reporting that a source says "SNL" would love to book Tebow to host once the football season ends.
The article doesn't say the NBC show has contacted Tebow, 24, just that producers "(realize) it would be HUGE ratings and they are hoping he will say yes."
Yes, people would tune in -- we'd be among them. Athletes, including quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, have hosted the show, so there is precedent. But if he's approached, Tebow's going to say no, and he's smart to do so.
First off, whatever his athletic skills, he's not going to be comfortable standing up there delivering the traditional opening monologue.
The skits themselves are a whole different thing. Manning actually took part in a memorable sketch where he played off his nice guy image, terrorizing a bunch of grade-school football players. (At one point, Manning clonks a kid in the head with a pass and then yells at him: "Get your head outta your a**! You SUCK!" He later shows them how to break into a car.)
But how could Tebow do the same? He's known for prayers, praising God on-field and off, and going on missionary trips where he has assisted in medical and dental procedures, including, most famously, helping in circumcisions.
There's no question the sketches "SNL's" writers would create for Tebow would play off the many known issues surrounding him -- the circumcisions, his virginity, the on-field prayer stance dubbed "Tebowing." But once they handed those scripts to Tebow, it seems wildly unlikely that he'd go along with what they come up with. Who can blame him?
Manning did it, and he looked smart for doing so. But here's betting the Tebow sketches would be much more personal and vicious, and much more likely to go against Tebow's personal values, religious or otherwise.
Last week's show featured Taran Killam playing Tebow, who is visited in the locker room by Jesus Christ (Jason Sudeikis). After it aired, evangelist Pat Robertson said the sketch showed "anti-Christian bigotry."
Whatever Robertson's opinion, we're betting that if "SNL" wants more Tebow on the show, they're going to have to keep utilizing Killam, not the real guy.
Related content:
