Estimated read time: 8-9 minutes
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Another thrilling chapter in the BYU-Utah rivalry epic was written last night, but perhaps only in this rivalry could an overtime walk-off TD pass after 60-plus minutes of football be eclipsed by 60-plus seconds in the press room.
BYU QB Max Hall had just authored a storybook finish to his final game at Lavell Edwards Stadium, celebrated with the crowd, received his senior blanket in an on-field presentation, then retreated to the locker room. A few minutes later, he was at the microphone, and...
"I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them — I hate everything about them...I hate their program. I hate their fans. I hate everything. So, it feels good to send those guys home. They didn't deserve it...we deserved it...it felt really good to send them home and to get them out of here, so it is a game I'll always remember...
...I think the whole university and their fans and organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them, and they deserve to lose."
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Whether or not Max Hall reconsiders his words or feels a need to apologize for any part of his comments, they were his emotional, raw, unvarnished sentiments immediately after an intense contest that featured short tempers, hard hitting and vein-bursting adrenaline.
Add to those factors some visceral and hurt feelings he had clearly been harboring, and you had a combustible formula that bubbled over and out in last night's postgame press conference.
Hall alluded to incidents that led him to conclude a number of things that would better have been ascribed to particular individuals or groups of individuals, either within the University of Utah's athletic program or fan population--but not to its entire fan base or institution. In that respect, he was wrong to paint with such a broad brush. Additionally, as a representative of a church-sponsored institution, he could have been more mindful of how such vindictive comments would be received.
However, as it relates to what he and his family have experienced, and to what he as an athlete feels relative to the rivalry, Hall should not be persecuted for his honesty. One can question his sportsmanship in the moment, but subjecting him to unequivocal condemnation disregards circumstance and context.
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In the aftermath of Max Hall's postgame comments, I detected a bit of a double standard in the media.
Having sampled just a bit of the press reaction so far, I have sensed false indignation from some who have spent time prodding and poking, looking for or hoping for players (present and former) on both sides of the rivalry to say something provocative leading up to the BYU-Utah game.
These media members promote contests and segments of programming dedicated to "trash talk" between the two sides. They mock and call disingenuous players who choose to play it straight and avoid bulletin board material. They want someone--anyone, to say something--anything, to stoke the fires. They know that inflammatory = entertaining, and they seek out the outrageous.
Then, when a player like Max Hall lets loose and reveals his personal feelings of hurt (or hate), he is attacked by these same media members for a lack of sportsmanship and class, and is derided for his forthrightness.
I've been around this rivalry and a part of the media long enough to know that that from a sports media standpoint, BYU-related items are historically more magnified and scrutinized--fact is, BYU "moves the needle," and local media decision makers make editorial decisions accordingly.
As a result, the radio talkers and writers probably have a week or more worth of shows and columns ahead of them, all dedicated to Max Hall's unexpectedly honest answer to a simple question. His outburst is good business for them, and they know it.
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Having grown up and been around different provincial and spirited rivalries, I can say without qualification that the BYU-Utah dynamic is unique in sports. The level of mutual bitterness and animosity is off the charts at times. To attempt to argue which side dislikes the other side more is fruitless, and it may come down to which signs of that dislike are more evident or egregious.
Yet, in my personal life, I can easily count many, many good friends and associates who support the Utes and with whom I engage in good-natured rivalry-related conversations at times. More often than not, of course, we talk about and deal with the other things in life, and the BYU-Utah dynamic is but a subtext to those relationships.
My next door neighbor, my across-the-street neighbor, my clever and cool intern Lee Horton, numerous work colleagues, Utah's play-by-play broadcaster and so many others in my life are fans of "my" team's rival, but there has never been an occasion in which I have been offended by or hope to have offended one of them.
For the most part, the only really unpleasant rivalry-related experiences I have had ever had have been with (usually) anonymous strangers, and while those experiences were not enjoyable, they don't wholly represent the University of Utah. They do remind me, though, that due to my affiliation with BYU, I am viewed as "the enemy" by some, and I have felt as such on occasion.
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Max Hall's experiences are his alone, and he owns his feelings and right to express them. Many on both sides of the rivalry wish he would have expressed them differently, or not at all. In some ways, Max Hall's expression is a creation and/or by-product of today's increasingly toxic rivalry environment--an environment fostered by sports media over-saturation, easy electronic attacks, cultural intolerance, and a general lack of civility.
At the same time, Max Hall tapped into what so many BYU fans want Cougar players to feel as intensely as they themselves do, when it comes to Utah--namely, passion. There's something invigorating about an athletic rivalry relationship, and whether it's players, coaches or fans, all will have to acknowledge that when it's BYU v. Utah, it's never "just another game."
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And, by the way, when the BYU hoopsters go to Logan on Wednesday, they are going to hear it from the Aggie fans at the Spectrum; it's going to be loud, and crazy and (sometimes) crass, and it's going to be sports rivalry all over again.
The Ags and their fans are going to want to crush the Cougars, and the Cougars are going to want to shut everybody up and get out of town with the win. It's the kind of game and atmosphere that makes those games fun to play--and broadcast.
In the end, it's just sports. And, usually, they're just words.
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The wonderfully talented professionals at BYU University Photography have been compiling photo slideshows of BYU Football games for some time now, but I have only sporadically posted links to their efforts. Here is their latest production, and I hope you enjoy their photographic excellence, without being distracted by the commentary audio.
You can see the entire season's worth of slideshows here.
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The focus on Saturday's postgame comments has detracted from an ending that should immediately be added to the pantheon of great BYU victories over Utah--joining "The Doink," the "Last Miracle for Lavell," "Beck-to-Harline" and "4th and 18" in Cougar football lore. And in time, Saturday's game winning-score will be properly recognized. Right now, the technicolor triumph has been dimmed somewhat by the hue and cry, but Max Hall-to-Andrew George ("Touchdown, By George!" perhaps) is an all-timer.
The dramatic elements were in place: an early deficit, then 20 unanswered BYU points, then 17 unanswered Utah points, then the overtime win on a play featuring two seniors on Senior Day at Lavell Edwards Stadium.
The game was a pleasure to call, and I continue to count myself fortunate to have been on the sidelines or in the booth for so many seminal moments in Cougar Football history.
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Kind of interesting, isn't it, that after everything, BYU is likely to end up in or near the Top 14 of the final BCS Standings, which carries with it at-large eligibility for BCS bowl games. This won't be BYU's year, but the Cougars will not have been too far away from the BCS promised land--indeed only about two or three teams will have stood between BYU and the BCS, and that's saying something, considering how the season was said to have "slipped away" after the loss to TCU.
In the end, this could end up as Bronco Mendenhall's most successful BYU team, in terms of Final BCS Standings--
2006: 20th
2007: 17th
2008: 16th
2009: ??
The latest BCS Standings will be released later this afternoon, but as BYU is 13th in both the Coaches' and Harris polls, and since BYU beat a ranked Utah team yesterday, the Cougars are all but certain to jump considerably from last week's #19, and finish with their highest-ever BCS ranking in next week's Final Standings.
Besides the six BCS Conference champs, and barring a Texas upset loss to Nebraska, the likely four at-large teams will be:
Florida/Alabama loser
TCU
Boise State
Penn State
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