Nice... who would've thought
Sadly we got the wrong kind of football here.
[SIZE=5]Tebow Was Here? Superstar Still Unknown In Philippines City Of His Birth
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/...city-his-birth
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There isn't any Tebowing going on in Makati City, the sprawling municipality in the Philippines that was the unlikely birthplace for the most talked-about athlete in the United States. Not yet, anyway.

Tim Tebow's season, from the series of extraordinary fourth-quarter comebacks to his cult-figure status as a true believer, has been remarkable in every way.

Yet, back where the journey began 24 years ago, the spread of the Tebow phenomenon is still to happen. Basketball and boxing are the sports of choice in Makati, and news of the Denver Broncos' 7-1 ride on the shoulders of a talismanic Tebow hasn't generated any buzz.

"Tee-bone?" said Makati government official Mila Gonzalez in a telephone conversation with ThePostGame.com. "How do you spell that?"

Tebow's parents, Bob and Pamela, were working as Baptist missionaries in the Philippines when their son was born in the Makati Medical Center on Aug. 14, 1987. Pamela Tebow was advised to have an abortion after suffering from a pathogenic amoeba but decided to go through with the birth despite the risks of her son being stillborn.

Tebow spent the first three years of his life in the Philippines and has returned on charitable and religious missions every year since he was 15 years old.

"I will always have a special place in my heart for the country where I was born," he said recently.

Given the amount of focus trained upon Tebow since his latest Sunday miracle, spearheading the apparently buried Broncos to a 13-10 overtime triumph over the Chicago Bears, you might have thought Makati, one of the 17 cities that make up the Filipino capital of Manila, would have latched onto the cultural bandwagon.

But Gonzalez, one of six government officials contacted for this story, noted that not one person at Makati City Hall so much as recognized Tebow's name.

"No one here has heard of him," said Gonzalez. "Is he a current player? Of course it is exciting for us now you have told us about this, and we will look it up. If someone from our city is successful it is something for us to celebrate. I am sure once people begin to realize he is from Makati they will start to follow him in his sporting endeavors."

Makati offers a fascinating snapshot of Filipino life. Part of the district forms the financial hub of the Philippines, complete with skyscrapers and billion-dollar fiscal institutions. However, just a couple of miles away and within the same district are slum areas where Tebow's parents worked to provide aid and spiritual guidance for the locals.

Yet, even the most passionate of local sports fans have yet to be touched by the Tebow hype that has engulfed the U.S.

"Basketball is the biggest sport that we follow; we don't know much about American sports apart from that," Makati contractor Jerry Araneta said. "I only know of O.J. Simpson, for obvious reasons. Oh, and Brett Favre. There is a poster of him in my favorite bar. But not Tim Tebow, I don't know him."

That may change soon, especially if Tebow's fame and form continue to surge. Two Manila newspapers are planning stories on the quarterback this week, and Filipino state television is sending a crew to the Broncos' showdown against the New England Patriots on Sunday.

Tebow continues his family's mission work, and his foundation has combined with renowned charity CURE International to build a state-of-the-art hospital in the troubled region of Davao that will provide reconstructive surgery for children suffering from deformities.

Funding for the $3.1 million project is nearly 80 percent complete, and it is expected that Tebow will be present at the groundbreaking ceremony in January.

Unless, of course, the weekly escape acts continue into the post-season.