Former NFL star Tim Tebow has refused to take credit for the miraculous recovery of a fan who awoke from a seizure after the athlete prayed over him, saying he simply did what any Christian would do in such a situation.
As earlier reported, after playing outfield for the Scottsdale Scorpions on Tuesday, Tebow was made aware that a man standing in a crush of fans seeking autographs along the third-base line had collapsed and appeared to have a seizure.
The 29-year-old NFL quarterback-turned-professional baseball player reportedly stopped signing autographs and made his way over to where people had gathered, and sat near the man, praying silently as a medic attended to him. Witnesses said seconds after he was touched by Tebow, the man jolted up and gasped for air, coughing loudly.
"I just remember being very disoriented," Brandon Berry, 30, told the Associated Press. "Then I saw Tim."
The athlete then remained by the man's side until paramedics arrived.
"It was a miracle moment that happened there," a witness, Daniel Kelly, told the Associated Press.
During a later interview, Tebow refused to take credit for the man's healing, instead pointing to the fact that God performs miracles on a daily basis.
"As far as me and miracles, no. But in the God that we serve, yeah, I do believe in miracles," the former Heisman Trophy winner told reporters. "I don't know what the situation was, but I know that the God that I get to serve is the God that always performs miracles in people's lives everyday, all the time."
When asked why he decided to pray over the man, Tebow told reporters he was simply doing what every Christian should do in such a situation.
"In my opinion, it's not even a choice. It's the right thing to do," he told reporters. "It's what you're supposed to do, in my opinion. And in those moments be there for people to help people, because there's not a bigger, better, greater thing you can do in life than to be there for people in life, in a time of need, to help them."
He added, "As a Christian, that's the hope that we get to live by, is that we get to serve a God that does amazing things every single day," he said. "It's amazing. It's one of the greatest hopes you get to live with."
This is not the first time Tebow has comforted a fan during a medical emergency: After a man fell unconscious due to heart problems on a flight back in June, the athlete left his first-class seat to come to the back of the plane to offer any help he could. As medics tended to the man, Tebow reportedly met with the man's wife, supporting her and praying with her, according to a fan who witnessed the event.
"I watched Tim pray with the entire section of the plane for this man," a witness wrote on Facebook at the time.
"He made a stand for God in a difficult situation. The plane landed in Phoenix and that was the first time they got a pulse back! Please share this with your friends!"
