Tim Tebow offered a Father's Day sermon on Sunday in San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium.
"It feels really good to get applause in this stadium; it's never happened before!" Tebow joked with the crowd, according to CBS news. The quarterback was referencing the crushing defeat his then team, the Denver Broncos, delivered to the local San Diego Chargers.
Tebow wasn't in the stadium for football, but rather the famously Christian quarterback was in San Diego as the keynote speaker in a Father's Day church service led by evangelical leader David Jeremiah.
Of the 26,000 fans there were lots of dads and sons in attendance. Many wore his jerseys – both Bronco and NY Jets - and sporting John 3:16 eye paint based on the famous Bible verse, reports NBC San Diego.
According the Christian Post, Tebow encouraged the audience to be active Christians: "I encourage you men to get in the game and finish strong, finish strong for your family, your wife and your sons and daughters."
Tebow remembered what his father taught him. "Every time I'd go to practice ... I'd always think about what my dad said to me: Do I really love what I'm doing? Am I passionate about it? And am I willing to sacrifice more than everybody else is willing to sacrifice? Because those three things are really easy to say -- they're very hard to do."
He added that while the world looks at him as a football player who's a Christian, "I look at the world and say, 'I'm a Christian who happens to play football."