Football To Frum

Football to Frum

A Rabbi once asked me if with what I know now, would I go back and change anything? It’s a difficult question. I told him that I wouldn’t change one thing. I think I played football for a particular reason and I believe now that I have an opportunity to inspire somebody, and maybe to inspire change for somebody. That makes the football part worthwhile, because it brought me along, to where I am now.

At one of the Shabbatons I went to, I sat with some of the men, and it was unbelievable the questions they were asking me, about how I went from the football life, to the frum life. They just think it’s the craziest thing.

These days, I don’t watch football. I don’t read anything about football. I listen to a little sports talk because I think I need to know a bit about it. When I go out, people ask me questions about the NFL, and I don’t know much about it any more.

The discipline, the self-control, the training, it was like preparation for this. Not missing practice. In football training, there’s not even a question, you don’t miss practice. You miss school. You don’t miss practice. In the pros, you just don’t.

Tuesday is a day off. If you have something to do you, it’s done on Tuesday. There’s no missing practice. How does that apply now? There’s no missing shul! You go to shul. That’s it.

When davening starts, you need to be there. It’s time to start davening and you’ve got to be ready to go. It was the same way with football. Late is a nightmare state to be in. “Something’s more important? What’s more important?”

“We’re starting a meeting at 9:00 and you come in at 9:02?” There are no excuses. There are no stories. What, I’m going to give G-d an excuse? “Sorry, God. I’m late to shul because I overslept or –” Yes, things happen, I realize that, but it’s serious.

For a meeting, a person prepares. You spend weeks and weeks getting ready for a meeting to sell your product or service. You prepare and you meet. You polish up your PowerPoint presentation and your suit’s pressed, your tie. If we spend all that time getting ready for a meeting, can’t we take the time to go into a meeting with G-d, to pray to G-d?

In football, you don’t show up two minutes to 7:00 when the meeting starts at 7:00. The great football coach, Jimmy Johnson, instilled it in us. “The meeting starts at 7:00am,” he’d say, “you need to be here at ten to 7:00. You need to be ready to go for that meeting. And if you aren’t – it kills me that perhaps something’s more important to you!” And that’s the approach I’ve taken with Judaism.

There are a few people who have accused me of being too radical about it, too extreme. But Jews have always been this way. Jews have always prayed three times a day, they’ve always made a minyan for morning prayers, they’ve always lived this lifestyle. Maybe three grandfathers ago, or maybe two grandfathers ago, or maybe four grandfathers ago, someone in my lineage, someone that came before me, lived this lifestyle. It’s how Jews have always been.

At some point, somebody in my line stopped practicing Judaism. Stopped passing the ball. Now I’m picking it up again, and I want to pass it on. It’s how I think Jews have been. It’s how I think Jews are, and live in the world. G-d wants us to live in the world. But we don’t have to not keep Shabbat; we don’t have to not pray. We can be Jews, and we can live in the world.