Group of students "Tebowing" at Riverhead High School (Photo: YouTube/Times Review)
Attention Long Island students: “Tebowing” can get you suspended.
A group of students at Riverhead High School were suspended this week for “Tebowing”—mimicking the pose Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow strikes on the sideline and after he scores a touchdown—because they were blocking the hallway of the school, school officials said.
The phenomenon has spread across the country, in which a person kneels on the ground with one knee, bends an arm to their head, and closes their eyes and says a prayer. There is even a website dedicated to all things “Tebowing.”
People nationwide—including celebrities—have been caught genuflecting as the second-year quarterback for the Denver Broncos, who miraculously burst upon the Mile High City and turned around the fortunes of the Broncos. The pose has also gone global, with people Tebowing in front of the pyramids in Egypt, France’s Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal in India.
Tebow has always been a very religious man and during breaks in college he would visit other countries to inspire young people in need. He has also visited jails and talked to inmates.
Brothers Tyler and Connor Carroll, and their friends, Jordan Fulcoly and Wayne Drexel, struck the pose Monday and were told by school officials to stop because they were blocking traffic in the hallway, according to reports.
“We’ve been doing it all week,” Tyler Carroll of Calverton told Riverhead News Review. “We started on Monday. We saw Tebow doing it and thought it would be funny. More people saw and started to join in. It was really catching fire.” Carroll also told other media outlets that they saw Tebow as a role model, inspring them to pay homage to the quarterback.
Originally it was reported that four students were suspended, but only two of the students were issued one day of in-school suspension, while the other suspensions were lifted.
Superintendent Nancy Carney said in statement to Riverhead Patch: “It’s wonderful that our students look up to sports heroes such as Mr. Tebow, but we can’t allow students to create unsafe situations in school. Students cannot block hallways and prevent other students from getting to class. A couple of students who were spoken to previously did not heed to the warning given by administrators, and they were disciplined accordingly.
“We hope that these students and all of our students continue to look up to the positive role models in public life; we just encourage them to do it in a responsible way.”
In the video posted on YouTube, students can be seen “Tebowing,” while dozens of students are standing behind them, some cheering and screaming “Tebow!” Someone is heard saying, “Get up off the ground,” multiple times.
Riverhead High School was thrust into the national spotlight on Thursday after Yahoo! Sports first broke the story, with other media outlets across the country picking it up. One of the Carroll brothers was also interviewed on ESPN’s Sportscenter Thursday night.
About 40 students joined in on the Tebow craze, according to Yahoo!
