Courting Tebow's vote

By now, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow's exploits have grown from being simply outstanding to a borderline fairytale.

Forget about the jump pass he threw as a freshman or the Heisman Trophy he won as a sophomore.

Since he picked up the little stiff-arm trophy in December, he's flown 15,000 miles and been honored by 15 different organizations and nine states. He's also traveled to the Philippines and helped doctors provide circumcisions to poor children.

He also killed a grizzly bear by flicking it with his index finger, healed a leper simply by looking at him and fended off five would-be muggers with nothing more than a $5 footlong sandwich.

OK, we made up those last three.

But nothing seems all that impossible for Tebow anymore.

Apparently, his Q-rating is such that political candidates want a piece of whatever magic he contains.

When Tebow won the Heisman in December, President Bush sent him a handwritten letter congratulating him. According to an article by Matt Hayes of the Sporting News, Tebow responded with a handwritten letter of his own. Now, everybody wants to use Tebow as a political football of sorts.

Hayes' story noted that Democratic and Republican representatives asked him to campaign with them during Florida's presidential primaries.

‘‘I didn't feel it was right to publicly show support right now," Tebow told The Sporting News. "I am conservative. I am interested in politics, I pay attention. But there's too much on my plate right now. That may be something that comes in the future."

In other words, get ready for a possible political advertisement with the following addendum:

Hi, my name is Tim Tebow ... and I approved this message.