By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
My favorite British writer Charles Dickens wrote words in 1859 that perfectly describe the state of American collegiate athletics today—“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
One need not look too far to find the worst. Arizona and Colorado boosters have taunted Brigham Young University fans and players with religious slurs in recent basketball and football games.
And a few weeks ago, a powerful United States senator named Mike Lee used his social media account to bully a 19 year old kid—the University of Utah’s place kicker—because the player followed his coach’s pre-game practice instructions during the same time a prayer was being said before the Utah/BYU football contest.
I don’t think Jesus would want some kid electronically stoned—in order to score a few culture war points—merely because he may have unthinkingly or unintentionally disrespected someone else’s prayer time.
Fortunately, the best is there to see in college sports too.
The most recent example for me? I saw a Facebook reel of BYU stars and gridiron brothers Bear and Tiger Bachmeier kneeling in prayer together and making the sign of the cross in a football field end zone.
Kudos to BYU. There’s something good happening when two Cougar Catholics are comfortable enough to express their faith in front of some 60,000 fans who likely believe something quite different, but who cheer for the two brothers anyway.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen something like it.
It was tough growing up—like I did—as an Irish Catholic kid in Latter-day Saint Northern Utah. Afraid of possible bias, I once told judges at a BYU debate meet that our team attended St. Joseph Smith High School in Ogden, even though the “Smith” part was a little white lie.
That’s why I went away to college at the University of Notre Dame
But then, during the 1981 March Madness, I endured the sports trauma of watching Danny Ainge dribble the length of the basketball court to beat Notre Dame 51 to 50 at the buzzer in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
The loss felt like a theological pronouncement instead of just a layup. But that was a pretty immature reaction and a problem I needed to work out. So I did.
I’ve long since abandoned the notion that God cares about the results of sporting events.
As a result, it’s actually fun when a young Latter-day Saint named Manti Teo goes to Notre Dame and becomes an All-American football player.
Ashley Dryer Lear—the daughter of another Utah Latter-day Saint family I know—did the same basic thing. She played in the Final Four as part of the Notre Dame women’s soccer team.
I love the 1993 movie Rudy. Notre Dame welcomed Rudy Ruettiger back to the campus during a recent football weekend even though Rudy now is a Latter-day Saint.
One of my Catholic high school classmates got a degree from BYU. Like me, a BYU professor I know loves the old Utah Trappist monastery in Huntsville I wrote about in my 2021 book Monastery-Mornings.
A few years ago—when I represented The Salt Lake Tribune against the BYU police in a records access court case, BYU’s general counsel Steve Sandberg told me of his good friendships with the in-house lawyers at Notre Dame. That’s how it should be.
There should be more meetings like the 2019 encounter where President Russell M. Nelson and Pope Francis exchanged gifts and hugs in the Vatican.
When Notre Dame played BYU in Provo a few years ago, the BYU police gave the Notre Dame fans an honorary escort from our tailgating party to the game. I wore my ND jersey and BYU fans stopped me several times inside the stadium to wish me well.
My friend and client George Myers sat with me, wearing his BYU jersey. By half time, he had made friends with all the other Domers sitting around us.
Those moments made me feel so good that I dare to hope that someday I can wear my red Utah jersey (I got my law degree at the U) in Lavell Edwards stadium too and get the same response. That really will be the best of times.
If Notre Dame or Utah play BYU again anytime soon, I will loudly cheer for my teams and my schools. Otherwise, I’ll happily cheer for BYU, the Bachmeier brothers, Kalani Sitake, and the dozens of BYU grads and fans I know who are some of my favorite people in the world.
After Danny Ainge beat Notre Dame back in 1981, a new joke circulated and eventually reached me even in faraway South Bend, Indiana.
The story was that College of Cardinals was meeting in Rome when a young priest rushed in. “I have good news and bad news,” he told the pope.
“What is the good news?” The pope asked.
“God is on the phone.”
Puzzled, the pope said, “Well, what could possibly be bad news about that?”
The priest said, “Well, God is calling from Provo.”
After many years of reflection, I am quite certain that this news is not as bad as I once thought.
*Mike O’Brien (author website here) is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Paraclete Press published his book Monastery Mornings, about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, in August 2021. The League of Utah Writers chose it as the best non-fiction book of 2022. Mike’s new holiday novel, tentatively titled “The Merry Matchmaker Monks,” will be published in time for Christmas 2026.
