Pablo Torre Jeremiah Smith Credit: Pablore Torre Finds Out, Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
By Qwame Skinner on
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Last month, investigative sports reporter Pablo Torre reported on ESPN and SEC Network college football analyst Tim Tebow’s Involvement in a Christian organization called Life Surge, which contracted the former star quarterback to give speeches at dozens of events over the past five years.

Torre explained that Life Surge holds events nationwide featuring prominent speakers and entertainers, from athletes to television personalities to comedians and musicians, and typically charges attendees around $30 for a ticket to one of its events, such as one where Tebow featured as a speaker.

However, multiple former attendees told Torre that much of Life Surge’s events are designed to convince people to sign up for the organization’s supposedly educational classes on how to navigate the stock market or make money in real estate. Introductory courses are sold to attendees for $97, but that is only the beginning of a much larger cash grab that Torre contends is predatory.

On Friday’s episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, Torre and Ohio political reporter D.J. Byrnes reported on prominent figures of the Ohio State football program’s involvement in Life Surge, which presents attendees to the introductory courses with a pamphlet that includes several options, all upwards of $10,000, with some reaching as high as $50,000, to receive what is framed as mentorship and coaching on how to succeed in the stock market or flipping real estate.

To help people afford the five-figure cost of Life Surge’s mentorship, the organization provided third-party brokers at these introductory classes who would help attendees apply for one or more credit cards at temporary 0% interest rates (which would later rise as high as 30%) to pay for the services.

Torre and Byrnes assert that ESPN analyst and former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Kirk Herbstreit appeared on stage for a Life Surge event, along with former Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer, as well as former star Caleb Downs, current quarterback Tavian St. Clair, and star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

“I mean, what you’re saying and what you’ve reported here is that this focus on God at the expense of ostensibly the Constitution, it has transcended Urban and entered, yes, the 5th-ranked program as we sit here today,” Torre said.

“Yeah. I mean, they’re leading baptisms on the Oval,” Byrnes responded. Literally. Like, football players on the roster have this big event where students can come and get baptized and, I guess, oversized Tupperware containers on the Oval.”

Byrnes added, “I was stunned that it really wasn’t a bigger story about, like, hey, these guys are literally funneling well-intentioned, financially illiterate Christians into a meat grinder.”

“The athletes in this case at Ohio State were used as seemingly part of the lure Life Surge dangled at the end of that stick as the carrot,” Torre said. “25 lucky customers at LifeSearch would receive a photo op with Urban Meyer and the players.”

About Qwame Skinner

Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.

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