Tim Tebow explains the healthy way to approach a position battle

Training camp is upon us, which is a reminder of one of the unspoken truths in sports, and especially football. For the vast majority of players, the most intense competition they'll face in their careers is not against their opponents, but their teammates. Think about it: to win the right to face the man across from you, you must first beat the man next to you.

It's an interesting, and potentially fraught, dynamic. In a time where building chemistry and trust within the locker room is arguably more important than mastery of the playbook, a position battle gone wrong can destroy a team from within before the real season even starts. Handled properly, though, healthy competition is an iron-sharpens-iron battle that makes a team greater than the sum of its parts. 

Tim Tebow has some thoughts on how to handle a position battle the right way.

First, some backstory. Tebow arrived to Florida ahead of the 2006 season as a big deal. A 5-star recruit, Tebow was homeschooled but played for Nease High School in Florida, and was featured against famed Hoover (Alabama) in a game televised by ESPN. Tebow was the best player on any team he'd ever played on, and in 2007 he'd become the first underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy. So, in August of 2006, Tebow knew he was good enough to be Florida's starting quarterback, and yet arrived to a team with an entrenched starter. Chris Leak was also a 5-star recruit, and started for Florida immediately upon his 2003 arrival. He'd also started the previous year, in Urban Meyer's first year leading the Gators.

It was unrealistic to think Meyer would bench an entrenched starter in Leak for a true freshman, even if that freshman was Tim Freaking Tebow. 

“I would try to show up with the mindset of, ‘I’m competing with Chris, but also for him as a team.’  Tebow told the Flagrant podcast. 

"I’m on his team, and he’s on the same team I’m on. When I get to go in the game, I’m trying to do good for him so he gets to come back on the field. We’re competing for each other."

Meyer carved out a roll for Tebow that season as essentially a Wildcat quarterback before the term was invented. He rushed 89 times, mostly in short-yardage situations, with eight touchdowns while tossing 33 passes for five more touchdowns. Leak threw the ball 365 times that season for a Florida team that won the 2006 national championship. The following year, Tebow became the first player to account for 20 passing and 20 rushing touchdowns, and also the first player to account for 30 passing and 20 rushing touchdowns. 

"Average competitors, and I mean this more in mindset, not talent, want to beat someone when they’re weaker. Elite competitors want to beat people at their best. I would challenge myself, I want him to do good, I just want to do better. I’m going to root for him. I’m going to praise him. I’m going to encourage him. I’m going to want the best for him.”“Am I going to want to do great? Yes. But I’m going to choose to root for him."

One could say, Yeah, well, he's Tim Tebow. It's easy for him to say, he's built different than the rest of us mere mortals. It's easy to forget now, but Tebow was put on a pedestal second only to -- and I mean this only half-jokingly -- Jesus himself. "If you're fortunate enough to spend five minutes around Tim Tebow," Thom Brennaman said during the broadcast of the 2008 national championship game, "your life is better for it." 

But even he had to battle daily with his own ego to compete with Leak in a healthy way. If Tebow Almighty had to consciously choose each day to root for the player competing to take away his own playing time, your junior cornerback will, too. 

"It’s a choice. It’s not always emotion. Your emotions, your pride and your ego, it can get to you. Fighting against it is a daily, moment-by-moment thing.”