I Know It's Old News, But I Can't Resist

When OU lost to BYU in the opening game of our season, I knew there would be someone the next day at church who would inevitably point out that the Sooners lost not because they were outplayed, but simply because not every OU player was a good, clean cut returned missionary like the players on the BYU team. I knew this statement would make my hair stand on end for many reasons. Among these were the following:

• I'm almost positive that not every single  BYU football player is LDS because I know for sure that not all of the students are. Why you would want to go there if you weren't LDS, I'm not sure. But people do. (I tried to verify this with a Google Search, but only found chat board speculation similar to mine.)
• Even IF all the players were LDS, not all LDS men serve missions. Notably, Steve Young didn't, though I hate to single him out like that when I have such respect for his wife. However, it's an effective example.
• No one is perfect be they LDS, returned missionary, Methodist, Atheist, or Buddhist, NO ONE.
• Even if you are as close to perfect as humanly possible, God is not going to hand you things on a silver platter. I hate it when I hear church teachers telling the youth that something didn't work out for them because they weren't "being good enough." We are not exempt from trials and our trials aren't predicated on our righteousness. To teach our youth that if they behave that they won't have problems is to shake their faith to its core when they do their best and bad things happen. I'd like to say that we have stopped doing this as a church, but I still hear it all too often. (Good luck to anyone who tries to teach it to MY children, though.)
• And finally, GOD DOESN'T FAVOR FOOTBALL TEAMS. He leaves that to us for our recreation.

And of course, someone did say it in church. Several others said it on Facebook. People unfriended me on Facebook over my reaction to such a ridiculous claim. While I have enjoyed visits to Salt Lake City and Provo through the years and certainly appreciate the heritage that comes from there, I do not understand the hero-worship some of our members here in Oklahoma ascribe to all things that come from the state of Utah; particularly the BYU Cougars. To them I say this: When I was baptized, I convenanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ, to mourn with those that mourn, to comfort those who need comfort, and to obey the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Not once throughout the missionary lessons or during my baptismal service did I agree to forsake my Sooners and root solely for BYU. (And that's good because it just might have been a deal-breaker.) And I also say that while I don't think winning is predicated on personal righteousness, I'm pretty sure I've never heard Sam Bradford say anything like this about ANY opponent.



I'm glad he apologized, he absolutely needed to regardless of how his family was treated a full year before he made those statements. I will admit seeing that gave me a great deal of smug satisfaction until I thought about how I would like to be judged by millions for something I said in the heat of the moment, and I didn't like that very much at all. Would anyone? Still, I hope everyone who took such glee in pointing out the Sooner's moral inferiority to the good ol' Y made a mental note to keep their judgemental mouths shut from now on. And, on that note, I would like to thank Sam Bradford for his awesome run at OU and for always being such a class act when it would be so easy, so allowable, and so human of him not to be. And  I also admit that I can't say that about everyone to have ever played for OU. The point of this post wasn't to paint either university or its players as "the good guys" and "the bad guys," it was simply to say in light of recent events I hope more people of my faith understand how dangerous it is to talk about how much more righteous and "worthy of victory" the BYU football team is. Or how much more righteous Latter Day Saints are when compared to other Christians for that matter. In fact, I think we should really cease and desist with comparisons completely because you can find the class acts, the bad sports, and the rule-breakers on ALL sides. It's dangerous to put ourselves or those that we think represent us on such high pedestals when all of us are human and therefore very prone to falling off of them. Let's forgive each other our trespasses and leave the Pharisees' attitude in the New Testament where it belongs, shall we? I'll try if you will...