Drives me nuts when fans fall back on the incredibly self righteous "he didn't/couldn't live the HC" or "couldn't hack it academically."

The athlete equivalent of "they hate BYU cause they couldn't get in" and Ex-Mormon "they just didn't want to live commandments & pay tithing."

Those gotta account for 3/4 of good LDS people that can't stand BYU, & if it wasn't so extreme & commonplace, I'd tell em to get over it and stop clinging to a reason that's so rare in reality. But, it's not rare. I tend to think its mainly younger people, as I probably said similar things at one point. Actually, confession time.

I was dating the smokin' granddaughter of a U BB star from the late 40s? NIT or NCAA champ. team and the Grandparents gave me a UU sweatshirt at Christmas, and ordered me to wear it for family gathering weeks later, oh man, can't believe what a jerk I am, I'm sure many of you can. Anywho, I take a big black sharpie and draw a circle & line through the U, and "SUCKS" in big block letters underneath. Of course, as I'm driving there, the second guessing and doubts start kicking in.

She runs out to greet me and asks if I wore it. "of course" I say. I remove my coat to display my masterpiece, and it's not being received as I'd imagined. Now, they'd given me several metric tons of crap n grief re; BYU, and I held my own. This sweatshirt was nothing beyond what they'd been saying for months, with the older people choosing their words better than those my age.

So, she freaks out and quickly bundles me up in my coat and pushes me back in my car, as she gets in and slams door shut. She explains how she really wants me to be loved and accepted by her family and this sweatshirt is a total deal-breaker. She runs inside, comes back w a similar sweatshirt and I change into it.

It was prolly a small and I wear L, so it went a few inches past my elbows and about to my belly button. My shame was surely to be amplified by wearing this little person U shirt. The Things we do for love. Her G-pa was old, but sharp as a razor. He asks me to take my coat off, the whole room turns to watch the Zoob unveiling. For a few seconds, silence. Then, uproarious laughter. G-pa says, "I probably won't like what you did to the orig. sweatshirt we gave you, but, you must really love my Grandaughter if you're willing to wear that itty bitty U shirt in the heart of enemy territory." We had a great night and dated for several months on & off. I'm still friends w her brother n parents and her G-parents were bummed we never got too serious. Incredible family.

So, my earlier point was not meant to infer I haven't done my share of stoking the hatred in younger years. It definitely changed my view of Alufs and how great most are w representing, and defending their faith to less than friendly elements toward the Church in their fanbase. They don't take the approach many Y fans think they should, and "get in their face, rip down the signs and destroy the jello shots", instead they simply let their actions and behavior do the talking, and its far more effective in healing the contentious and sometimes hateful divide that some Y fans think should be handled by way of my previous mention above.

Pretty much everything I thought I knew was way off the mark. Which isnt anything new, in some regards, the older I get the less I know.