In the spirit of the Super Bowl, a football trivia question: what do quarterbacks Tom Brady and Kurt Warner have in common?
Most famously, they have both been Super Bowl winners – and maybe again – and recipients of the league’s MVP player award several times.
But what they also have in common is that they were given very low chances of ever making it on to an NFL team roster, let alone becoming all-time league greats.
Brady was drafted by the Patriots as the 199th pick in the draft and only took over as starting quarterback after an injury to Drew Bledsoe. This year, he switched coaches, cities and conferences and, at 43, is back in the Super Bowl.
Warner was not selected at all!
He tried out for the Packers in 1994, and was released before the regular season. No team wanted to give him a chance.
He stocked shelves in a grocery store for $6.50 an hour and played in the Arena Football League.
He was supposed to try out with the Chicago Bears but was bitten by a spider during his honeymoon.
He then played in NFL Europe.
He signed with the St. Louis Rams in 1998 and after an injury to the starting quarterback, took over, and in 1999, had one of the best seasons of any quarterback in NFL history.
Given what we now know about their careers, this is almost impossible to imagine.
They are actually part of a legendary group of quarterbacks who according to current NFL draft rules would never have been selected, either, including Hall of Famers Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr and Roger Staubach.
Each of these players are great examples of outsiders who made a game-changing impact.
But it could easily have gone differently.
Any of them could have allowed the lack of interest from teams or the public impact on their self-confidence and resolve to play the game.
In our parsha, we encounter Yitro, someone who could have looked at reality and turned the other way, but chose to make a difference, instead.
Yitro saw a group of nomads forming into a people of purpose and recognized a problem that if solved, could dramatically improve their lives. [Exodus 18:14]
But he knew that his advice might be ignored, not only because he was an outsider but because he was trying to give advice to his son-in-law…
Yitro had passion; he wanted to make a difference.
He saw the entirety of the field, the big picture, and the adjustments that would be necessary in order to make Moshe into the most effective quarterback for the Jewish People.
He saw that in order for that to happen, Moshe must learn to share the burden with a team.
Yitro overcame any self-doubt and societal opposition, and ended up radically reshaping the Jewish People’s judicial system, which freed up Moshe to focus on leading the people on the important issues facing them.
How many times in our lives do we have the opportunity to make a difference?
An opportunity to grow in ways that requires us to stretch ourselves to our limits.
It is almost always easier to simply ignore the opportunity. We convince ourselves that “it’s too difficult” or “I might fail”. Worse, others may think I am not capable.
But imagine pro football without Unitas, Starr, Staubach, Warner or Brady, any of whom could have easily chosen the simpler path of accepting the poor assessments of others about them.
Imagine the destiny of the Jewish People and societal jurisprudence without the brilliant guidance of Yitro.
We all have the opportunity to make difference: let us resolve to do something more to make our lives, the lives of our families, communities and society even just a little more meaningful.
Our position on life’s playing field is not decided by only a draft, or by coaches, or by popular opinion.
It is decided by our resolve to fully actualize our God-given potential.
Shabbat Shalom.