Tim Tebow encourages student athletes: 'Be more than an athlete'

Former National Football League (NFL) star Tim Tebow, attending as a guest speaker at a high school sports award program in South Carolina on May 16, encouraged student athletes to be "bigger than sports" and "be more than an athlete."

"Focus on who you can be, and allow the platform that sport gives you to impact other people," said the former NFL player during the Greenville News Upstate Sports Award night at TD Convention Center in Greenville, according to the Greenville News.

"You are changing other people's lives for better or worse, every day. Be bigger than sports. Don't just be an athlete – be more than an athlete," Tebow said.

"You only have so many games, so many opportunities to win a championship," he told the 220 high school athletes who were present. "Your career is short, but your life is going to be a lot longer."

Tebow, a two-time national champion and Heisman trophy winner and now a college football analyst for the SEC Network, has made his reputation for being an outspoken Christian athlete who's done a lot outside the football field with his philanthropy. He started the Tim Tebow Foundation to help children around the world as well as the Tebow CURE hospital.

The former quarterback is known for his pro-life advocacy when he revealed his story in a 2010 Superbowl commercial funded by Focus on the Family. Tim's parents were on a missionary trip in the Philippines when his pregnant mother, Pam, caught dysentery and was advised by the doctors to abort the pregnancy to save her life. His mother rejected the abortion and both of them survived miraculously.

He's also released an autobiography "Through My Eyes" and "Through My Eyes: A Quarterback's Journey." Tebow endorses Nike, Jockey International, FRS Health Energy, and TiVo. He also appeared in ESPN's documentary "Tim Tebow: Everything in Between" and NFL's "The Faces of Tebow."