I haven't posted on Cougar Board for years, but I do wander over here from time to time and check out some of the interesting topics being discussed here. I have to say, that I've been very disappointed by all the ALUF talk.

My grandpa has been a stake president, my dad has been a bishop twice, my brother-in-law is a bishop, and I currently serve in my ward's elder's quorum presidency. We are all University of Utah season ticket holders and faithful and ardently active members of the LDS church.

My entire immediate family are Utah fans, but I have a few cousins that are die-hard byu fans, and I have a wife that is an ardent die-hard byu fan. The last two years after the Utah has beaten BYU my wife wouldn't talk to me the entire evening. I just shrug it off, but that's definitely one of the reasons why I don't mind seeing the rivalry on hold for two years. It's been tough to see my wife so down after a loss to Utah, and it's made me occasionally think that I'd rather see Utah lose to BYU than to see my wife sad. I've never thought that my entire life until I married her, but that topic is for another day.

What I really wanted to post about was how amazed I am to hear that people really and honestly believe that people have beer thrown on them at Rice-Eccles Stadium. I didn't think that people "really" believed this until I was talking to one of my byu cousins the other day. I love that kid to death, he's one of the coolest and nicest guys I know. We were talking about sports, like we always do, and we were talking a little about the end of the rivalry and then he talked about how he has never seen a game at RES because he didn't want to have beer thrown on him. He said it in the most sincere way possible. I knew he TRULY believed it happened. I was shocked. It was in that moment that I realized.

The legend of Utah fans throwing beer on opposing fans is akin to the legend of Mormons having horns. Well, maybe not that extreme, but pretty close.

Let me explain something.....

1) Rice Eccles Stadium does not sell beer
2) If people sneak in alcohol, they sneak in small liquor bottles and poor it in their sodas, it's not beer, and trust me, I've been a part of clean up crews and concession workers up there for years. I've never once seen a beer can in the stadium.

I suppose a person probably has been hit by a soda before and that soda may have had alcohol in it, giving the impression of beer, but beer itself, no way. For the record, I sit right next to visitor section at RES and while I've seen a fair share of heated arguments and profanity being tossed around between Utah fans and visiting fans, I've never once seen a fan get hit by a drink.

Also, some people claim that ALUF's never stand up for byu fans when they are being berated by Utah fans with vulgarity. That's not true, I've seen many times when fans have asked others to calm down that are getting out of control.

I'm not sure if my thoughts even matter since I am a Utah fan, but I suppose I'm one of the ALUF's that people here can tolerate. I don't hate BYU, I even cheer for them a little ever since I married my wife (I even went to the 8:30 New Mexico State game last year and froze my tail off, so I could support my wife).

I just hope that this post might help people understand a little better that the beer being tossed around the stadium, the old ladies in wheel chairs being shoved, those stories are way way way overblown. BYU fans are not treated very well at RES, no question about that, but I'm not treated very well at LES either. I've been hit by a penny, licorice, and a tootsie roll. But I would never claim I was hit in the back by a caffeine free diet coke if it really never happened.

But legends are often constructed from embellished stories rather than reality.