Even though the National Football League plays most of its games on Bible Sundays, some players don’t want to hear about it.

A Heisman trophy winner on his way to the professional ranks reportedly found that out the hard way at a recent scouting test held for NFL teams trying to decide who to select in the upcoming draft.

The NBC Sports Pro Football Talk blog reports, “As we’ve mentioned once or twice, quarterback Tim Tebow’s habit of openly expressing his religious beliefs could potentially rub folks the wrong way, especially in a locker room of grown men who choose to keep their beliefs to themselves, who don’t share his beliefs at all, and/or who only want to hear ‘God bless’ after they have sneezed.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Mike Florio continues,

We’re told that Tebow already has gotten a taste of the resistance he might face at the next level. At the Scouting Combine, the Wonderlic exam is administered to players in groups. The 12-minute test is preceded by some brief instructions and comments from the person administering the test. Per a league source, after the person administering the test to Tebow’s group had finished, Tebow made a request that the players bow their heads in prayer before taking the 50-question exam. Said one of the other players in response: “Shut the f–k up.” Others players in the room then laughed.

Sporting News blogger Michael Tunison writes, “If true, it’s presumptuous for Tebow to assume that the others in the room would want or feel the need for prayer prior to taking a standardized test. At the same time, whoever it was who shouted him down could have declined in a far more polite manner, or could have just kept quiet and let the spiritual guys have their moment.”

“Considering some of the scores these players got on their Wonderlic, they should have been asking for all the help they could get,” a Guyism blogger mocks. “IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m surprised we didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hear about prayer rugs, raising of incense, buddha statues, and jihad in an effort to get better scores.”

At the Chicago-Sun Times, Kyle Koster writes, “Hard to tell if that played into Tebow’s score of 22.”

Tebow’s outspokenness about his religious views is undeniably a consideration that NFL teams would have to weigh before picking him up. He could run into situations like this or could find a niche in a locker room where he is held as an emotional leader. Who is out of bounds in this situation? Tebow? The foul-mouthed dude who just wanted to take the test? Both of them? Should this be worrisome to prospective teams?

ADVERTISEMENT

In January, Huffington Post noted that “Tebow regularly includes references to Bible passages in his eye black. During the SEC Championship game, he guided viewers to John 16:33. The week before, in his last home game as a Florida Gator, his eye blacks referenced Hebrews 12:1-2. Tonight, Tebow is playing the final game of his college career in the Sugar Bowl, and he has included one final message beneath his eyes.”

Tebow’s eye black says “EPH 2:8-10,” a reference to the Epistle to the Ephesians. Ephesians 2:8-10 says: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

An anti-abortion ad featuring Tebow ran during the Super Bowl broadcast on CBS, as ABC News reported in January:

ADVERTISEMENT

He was the first sophomore in history to win a Heisman trophy. He was the first college football player both to rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in a season. Last year, he led his college team, the Florida Gators, to their second national championship in three years. At 6 feet 3 inches and 245 pounds, Tim Tebow may go down in history as the greatest college football player who ever lived. And to think none of that would have happened if not for a decision his mother made nearly 23 years ago. That is the message of a controversial new ad starring Tebow and his mother, Pam. Paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, the ad tells the story of Bob and Pam Tebow, who was pregnant with their fifth child when the couple travelled to the Philippines on a missionary trip. While there, Pam contracted amoebic dysentery and the medicines used for her recovery threatened her unborn fetus. Doctors advised her to abort the fetus. Pam ignored their advice and gave birth on Aug. 14, 1987, to a baby boy. That boy was Tim Tebow.

The Focus on the Family Super Bowl commercial with Tim Tebow, as posted on YouTube: