National Football League

Tim Tebow once passed on a million-dollar endorsement deal because of Bill Belichick

Published Dec. 9, 2016 12:58 p.m. ET

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Nick Schwartz

Former NFL quarterback and fledgling baseball prospect Tim Tebow joined FOX & Friends to discuss a few stories from his new book, Shaken, and during his interview Tebow opened up about a costly decision he made just before he was cut by the New England Patriots in 2013.

Tebow writes in the book that he was offered an endorsement deal worth $1 million during his time with the Patriots, but before accepting it he wanted to get coach Bill Belichick's blessing.

"You went to [Belichick] and you said 'should I do this coach? What do you think?' You said for any other coach you wouldn't have asked, you would have just done it and gotten the million dollars. And he said 'I'd really appreciate it you not doing it.' And then a few weeks later he cuts you from the team....

Well, I didn’t want to be a distraction on the team. I wanted to be just another guy in the locker room. Someone that could work, someone that could be a backup to Tom, and I didn’t want to be a distraction having stuff all over the headlines. That’s why I called coach Belichick to say ‘what do you think about this, this is a great opportunity to say yes to, but I want to do what’s right for the team first.’

He appreciated me calling but said ‘hey, listen I would prefer if you didn’t do it. So, of course, I didn’t because I put the team first. And that’s not something I look back and regret at all. It was me trying to honor the team, and if I could do it again I’d have done the same thing.”

Tebow also said that when he first arrived in New England he fully believed that he could win "a bunch of Super Bowls."

“I felt like, hey, going to the Patriots was going to be a dream come true. Play under Tom Brady, and then when he retires we’ll go play for Belichick and win a bunch of Super Bowls. That was my goal. That’s what I thought was going to happen.

Then you get cut and it’s like ‘what am I going to do next?’ I remember flying to Jacksonville and sitting on the edge of the bed thinking ‘OK I have no house, no car, no one wants me to do what I want to do. What do I do next?’”

You can watch the entire interview here.

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