Tim Tebow, teleprompter and poise

[media-cred­it id=259 align=“aligncenter” width=“470”]Tim Tebow Doves 2011[/me­dia-cred­it]

Tim Tebow pre­sent­ed a Dove Award for the first Uplift Some­one Award on Wednes­day at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta. ~ Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Tak­ing a break from fig­ur­ing out how to train and pre­pare for the next NFL sea­son dur­ing the lock­out, Bron­cos quar­ter­back Tim Tebow took a time­out to be a part of the Gospel Music Asso­ci­a­tion’s Dove Awards in Atlanta on Wednes­day night. (The Dove Awards will be aired East­er on the Gospel Music Chan­nel.)

At the his­toric Fox The­ater on Peachtree Street, Tebow, wear­ing a light blue and white pin­stripe seer­suck­er blaz­er, pre­sent­ed the first Dove Uplift Some­one Award to Steven Cur­tis Chap­man and his wife Mary Beth for their involve­ment with adop­tion issues and their Show Hope min­istry.

The writ­ers for the show could not resist Tebow’s link to the Flori­da Gators and their SEC rivals, the Geor­gia Bull­dogs, in this col­lege foot­ball hotbed.

I’m hon­ored to be in Geor­gia,” Tebow said as he greet­ed the audi­ence. “Well, you know, we did­n’t have too many prob­lems with Geor­gia, so it’s OK.”

The Heis­man Tro­phy win­ner went on to explain his con­nec­tion to the GMA’s first Uplift Some­one Award and his mis­sion.

This is some­thing that is near and dear to my heart. It real­ly touch­es me,” Tebow said. “I’m blessed with tal­ents and to be a foot­ball play­er … and this is a way to use my plat­form for God.”

Well, just about then, the teleprompter broke, and you could see a look of dis­be­lief on his face as he looked around for a lit­tle help. But just as if he was on the grid­iron with a defense press­ing in, the fleet-foot­ed quar­ter­back took off run­ning, ad lib­bing his intro­duc­tion to mul­ti-Dove Award win­ner Chap­man.

Did you see that? The teleprompter broke,” Tebow said back­stage after pre­sent­ing the award. “I looked around and did­n’t know what to do, so I just start­ed talk­ing about Steven Cur­tis Chap­man.

By his intro­duc­tion, you could tell that Tebow is no stranger to the new age of Chris­t­ian music.

I grew up lis­ten­ing to these guys,” he said. “It’s an hon­or to meet these peo­ple and to talk to them, to get to know them. And to part­ner with each oth­er’s min­istries and real­ly make an impact.”

To get ready for a game, you would think Tebow would plug in some Red, Skil­let or Dis­ci­ple to get the juices flow­ing, but it’s just the oppo­site — he plugs in acoustic rock­er Chris Tom­lin.

Chris calms me down before I go out there,” Tebow said. “I’m already pumped up. I need some­thing to calm me.”

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