Several of the stories Truman Madsen shares about Joseph highlight his human side. There is the story where some jerk is making fun of him and asking (in a mocking tone): "Do I have the privilege of looking at a prophet of God?" Joseph responded, "Maybe you do. Would you like to wrestle?" Or there was a time when he out-dueled two preachers in Biblical knowledge and then for good measure went outside and did a standing broad jump and said, "Well, you couldn't beat me at the scriptures, see if you can beat me at this."

Then there were the people who thought it was wrong or crude or beneath him for Joseph to wrestle with the neighborhood boys or stick pull or get down and dirty on occasion. "Joseph needs to learn when to start being a prophet" they would say or "How can a prophet of God do such things?". Maybe the problem wasn't that he didn't know when to be a prophet, but rather he knew exactly when to be a rough-and-tumble father and friend who enjoyed life.

BYU football needs to walk two lines: they need to be good football players and they need to be good men. The line seems to blur at times and they lean towards being good men at the expense of doing what is necessary to be good football players. I don't know exactly how to solve that problem, but I am also not being paid to do just that.

Joseph was one of the most spiritual and impactful men who ever lived and when he was being a prophet he was a darn good one. But when the prophet mantle came off he would challenge you to wrestle or stick pull or broad jump and kick your yewt at whichever one you tried. Sometimes he even made mistakes and learned from those mistakes. But he knew when to be a prophet and when to be regular old Joseph. Regular old Joseph just happened to be a fun-loving guy who would beat your yewt at whatever you tried and then he'd preach a wonderful sermon to you the next day.

I wish BYU football would learn how to become football players that kicked your yewt and still be able to be good men. I don't think it's impossible to do so.