Tim Tebow officially on cover of NCAA Football 11

Former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow has officially landed on the cover of EA Sports’ NCAA Football 11 video game.

EA Sports NCAA Football 11 Cover Shoot Video

Tebow, who recently signed an endorsement deal with Nike, is the second Florida player to be featured on the game franchise’s cover. His childhood idol and Heisman Trophy winning QB Danny Wuerffel was the cover athlete of NCAA Football 98, the first installment of the genre’s best-selling series.

Now we know why Tebow was so hesitant to give OGGOA a decisive answer on this topic when we interviewed him over a week ago. “[Laughing] EA, we’ll see,” he said.

Best of all for Tebow, his relationship with EA Sports extends beyond simple promotion. The video game company has done wonders to help him give sick children in Gainesville, FL, something to do while in the hospital.

“It’s exciting to be with EA Sports because when you look at their brand, it’s very positive. It’s great for young kids, it’s great for everyone to sit down and play a good video game,” Tebow told ESPN. That’s something that’s uplifting and something everyone can have fun with. We spent the last year building a play room at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, and these games are going to be a big part of it.”

Read Tebow’s entire interview with ESPN Video Games.

Jon Robinson: What was your reaction the first time you saw yourself in a video game?
Tim Tebow: First thing I thought was, I’m faster than that. [Llughs] I wanted to call some people and get my speed rating bumped up a little bit. But it’s fun to be a part of the game. It’s something that exciting, and it’s a little surreal to be honest, because you’re playing as yourself in a game that you grew up playing. As a kid, I always looked up to these guys who were on the cover of the college game, so it’s a really fun experience for me just to be involved.

JR: What did you think the first time you saw your video game character throw an interception?
TT: To be honest, I don’t actually play as Florida a lot. Even the last four years I haven’t played as them too often because they’re really good in the game and it’s too much of an advantage for whoever is playing as them. Usually we pick lesser teams. But the other day I was playing against my brother and he was playing as Florida, and he was trying to scramble around, he was running to his left and threw all the way back down the field to his right like 80 yards. I was like, “There’s no way I could’ve made that pass.” So sometimes the video games exaggerate a little bit. But my brother was like, “What, are you doubting yourself? You don’t have confidence?” It was pretty funny.

Starting with NCAA Football 09, EA Sports began featuring different student-athletes on the game’s cover for each individual platform (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox360, Wii, etc.) It is unknown if Tebow would grace the 2011 game’s cover on one or every format.

Photo Credit: Jon Robinson/ESPN