Not knowing what to do, he continuing davening. Just as he was about to start Shemoneh Esrai, he noticed another Jewish man standing just a few feet away from him putting on his own tallit and tefillin. He motioned to Shlomo and pointed out the correct direction to face.
“I was behind a wall, I don’t know how he found me,” Shlomo said. “G-d provided for me. He wanted me to daven facing Jerusalem so he sent me a shaliach.”
In his speeches Shlomo tries to give listeners advice to help them pass the religious and personal tests in their own lives. Many people have approached him and described the strength they received from him.
Once Shlomo was an unwitting role model while speaking to a group of eighty Jewish high school kids in New York. He had brought his children with him and throughout the speech his daughter was sitting in the audience giggling and talking. His son was standing behind him. Shlomo began speaking about running the 40-yard dash, one of the measures of a football player’s speed. Just at that moment he sensed that his son was running dashes behind him! Shlomo tried as hard as he could not to look at him and retain his focus.
Suddenly his son fell and started screaming. One of the rabbis ran up to the stage, picked him up and brought him to the audience.
“I was boiling inside! They brought me in to give an inspirational speech, and here it was getting ruined!”
A little while later his son calmed down and brought him an open bottle of water. He approached from behind. Shlomo was speaking animatedly and was waving his hands. Suddenly he jerked his arm back and hit the bottle out of his son’s hand, splashing water everywhere! The speech had gone from bad to worse.
After the speech one of the rabbis approached Shlomo.
“I’m very impressed with how well you maintained your composure.”
Shlomo just smiled. (‘I was boiling inside. I was thinking never to bring my kids along again!’)
Shlomo has also succeeded in being a source of inspiration for his former teammates. From time to time he’ll meet up with them and they marvel at the composure and personal strength he now has, which he attributes solely to his religious growth.
Last year Shlomo was invited by the Dallas Cowboys to the twenty-year reunion of Super Bowl XXVII. He and other teammates, as well as players from Super Bowl XXII, were honored in a special event on the field at halftime.
“I wanted to be there on the field with my yarmulka on. Being a football player, not observant, and now wearing a yarmulka, it gave me a great sense of pride.”
After the game the previous and current players joined up for a party in a hall below the stadium. In the middle of the party, Head Coach Jason Garret entered. He ignored the people crowding around him wanting to speak to him, instead scanning the room. His eyes met Shlomo’s and made a beeline to him. The two men had played together years earlier, but they had not seen each other in a long time.
“You are like a legend around here,” Jason said.
(“I thought, ‘I wasn’t such a great football player to be a legend around here.'”)
“You’re always welcome here, we’re so happy that you came,” the coach continued. “I can only imagine how much wisdom and knowledge you’ve gathered over the years.”
The Dallas Cowboys Assistant PR Director standing behind him perked up. “But Coach, you went to Princeton!”
“Yes, but it’s not the same as what he has learned.”
Those words made a deep impression on Shlomo, and indeed they have been his objective throughout his speaking career: recognizing the personal growth and insight he has achieved through his religious development and using them to inspire others. He has learned that it’s not athletic victories and physical prowess that the real Head Coach demands, but one’s internal strength and personal growth that matter. That’s the playbook that’s now leading Shlomo’s life.