On the day before the National Football League championship game last Sunday, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold was studying his playbook and reviewing game films. He was reviewing the plays his team could use the next day against the New England Patriots. He was studying the defensive formations and personnel alignments the Patriots could send on the field. He was preparing to put himself into the best mental state for victory.
A devout Christian, he should have gone to shul.
The Torah portion read in synagogue the day before the Super Bowl was Yitro.
The parsha, one of two in the Torah named for a non-Jew, centers around the Midianite priest, father-in-law of Moses, who joined the Children of Israel in the Sinai wilderness after their exodus from slavery in Egypt.
The life of Jethro was as example of a Talmudic principle — shinui makom, shinui mazel — that has defined the trajectory of Darnold’s up-and-down-and-finally-up athletic career.
The Hebrew term, rooted in tractate Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a, means a change in location brings a change — in other words, an improvement — in one’s fortunes.
Which defines the quarterback’s playing days in the NFL.
The University of Southern California star was drafted by the New York Jets in 2018; he, projected to be a can’t-miss success, was the third player chosen in the draft that year.
Then, things went downhill. He played poorly with the Jets, then with the Carolina Panthers. He played better with the San Francisco 49ers . . . for one season. Then he moved on.
In sports terms, he was a bust, a wash-up, a journeyman, a major disappointment, an object of fans’ scorn.
Then things got better. In 2024, playing backup quarterback on the Minnesota Vikings, he demonstrated his G-d-given skills; after the starting QB got injured, Darnold started ten games. Improving his stats, he led the Vikings to a 14-3 regular season record and a place in the playoffs; they lost a first round Wildcard game.
Then, he signed a $100.5 million contract with the Seahawks.
The rest is Super Bowl history.
Darnold was finally a champion. He is a classic example of — a term overused in sports today — redemption.
Because he changed his makom.
As they say in real estate, location, location, location.
A change in location made all the difference for Darnold.
Once humbled, he was finally lauded, proving his worth.
Like Jethro.
Once a respected leader in his homeland, Jethro journeyed to take his place among Bnei Israel, where he was an outsider and where his position as the leader of an idolatrous religion earned him no respect. In the Sinai, he was, in the words of the Torah portion, merely “the father-in-law of Moses.” He was starting over, spiritually.
But Jethro accepted his new status; the Torah does not indicate that he objected to his demotion in honor.
Like Darnold. Who had accepted his position with the Vikings as a second-string player, then parlayed that into a rich contract and starter’s job with the Seahawks, in which he flourished.
The Torah tells of many individuals who improved their lives by changing their location — Abram and Sarai, who followed G-d’s lech lecha command to leave Ur Kasdim; Jacob, who fleeing from Esau in Canaan, married Rachel and Leah in Haran, and founded the Jewish nation; the Children of Israel, who immeasurably improved their mazel by departing from Egypt.
Contemporary history is full of men and women — athletes, as well as people in other professions — who proved the verity of shinui makom, shinui mazel.
A change in location — and in the quality of his coaches and teammates — made the difference for Darnold between mediocrity and unfulfilled potential, and the Super Bowl champion ring he will wear one day.
Yitro could have taught him that lesson.
