Have You Seen This? Popular ESPN show has 'LDS Thursday'

LDS THURSDAY — On Thursday, both former BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy and former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o appeared on the Pat McAfee Show. That led the host to dub the day "LDS Thursday" in reference to both players' faith.

That allowed for some small conversations about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the show, including why they were using the term LDS in the first place.

"LDS, what's that?," McAfee said. "Latter-day Saints, the artist formerly known as Mormon."

"Yes, Latter-day Saints," Van Noy later responded. "I think we're going away from the Mormon trajectory."

McAfee went on to say that he had great respect for the commitment to living any faith. The former Indianapolis Colt punter-turned-host shared how he used to pepper former BYU receiver Austin Collie with questions about the religion.

"I have massive respect for anybody that has committed to whatever they feel is the right move for them going forward," he said.

"With that being said, Austin Collie was the first LDS human I met. Buddy, I had 1000 questions for him. I was like, 'so you're the first one, so I apologize, you kind of know me a little bit now but this is how this is gonna go.' And just like listening to the commitment, the discipline and everything, nothing but respect."

During his interview, Te'o revealed that he and Van Noy went on the same recruiting trip to BYU (Te'o said the Cougars were in his top five) before he ultimately chose to go play in South Bend.

"We went on snowmobiles. I had two cousins that were at BYU at that time," Te'o said. "I prayed about it, bro. I wanted to go to (Southern California), everybody knows that. I grew up a SC fan. And so I prayed about my decision. ... I prayed about my decision and I felt like God was telling me to go to Notre Dame, and it was an act of faith. Honestly, bro, the way that my life has happened, it was meant to be for me to go to Notre Dame."

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