Many football players use eye black to deflect glares. When Tebow was in college, players began to write short messages on their eye black. Some players wrote their zip codes, their mothers’ names, or their girlfriends’ names. Tebow wrote Bible verses on his eye black. The practice of writing on eye black was banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2010.

Tebow’s habit of going down on one knee and bowing his head in prayer led to the minting of the word “Tebowing.” The term became so widespread that the online purveyor and protector of world data, The Global Language Monitor, declared it a real word in 2011.