Secondary violations are commonly self-reported by many schools in BCS conferences yearly. However, it is rare that the violation involves a former Heisman Trophy winner.

Tim Tebow, former NFL quarterback who played for the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos, has reportedly committed a secondary violation in 2013. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner was on an 8-second conversation with Clifton Garrett, one of the prospects for the Buckeyes who eventually went with LSU.

According to NCAA rules, former college football players are prohibited from having any type of contact with recruits.

On March 2013, Garrett phoned Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer. Meyer was out eating lunch with his family and Tebow. When Garrett learned that the coach was with Tebow, he asked if he could talk to him so that he could wish him good luck for the upcoming season. Tebow was able to talk to Garrett for about 8 seconds before the call was ended.

Garrett even tweeted about calling the coach and getting the chance to talk to Tim Tebow.

I just called Coach Meyer just ta see whats up and next thing you know I was talking on the phone to TIM TEBOW!!! #InShockRightNow #Insane!

— Clifton Garrett CG3™ (@CG340) March 9, 2013

The 8-second call was enough to be a violation.

Meyer said that there was no talk about recruiting and that Ohio State did not instruct Tebow to recruit Garrett in behalf of the school. The coach also admitted that the conversation between the two was an error that he made, but there was no intention of using Tebow to recruit Garrett.

There have been other reported incidents of secondary violations involving phones, but some of these were the result of pocket dialing. In 2012 to 2013, Ohio State has discovered about seven calls that came from assistant coaches. The calls were about a minute long and the assistant coaches were unaware that the calls happened. The Compliance Office then cross-referenced phone bills against information from recruiting software to flag the calls. They found no evidence of attempts to recruit players.

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