Ben Olson: Hurt Again and BYU fans are loving it
BYU is a church owned school and have a very interesting and unique fan base. They are owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints of which I am a proud member. However, I am not a fan of BYU. Not a fan at all. I am surrounded by BYU fans who speak of past legends like Ty Detmer with a sort of reverance. The true BYU fan, the one that drives me crazy, believes that God truly wants them to win. This isn’t made up. When Steve Young played for the 49ers the average BYU fan became a 49er fan and now God’s blessings needed and deserved to be poured upon the 49ers as a result. It drives me crazy.
The reason I preface it this way is because UCLA’s starting quarterback, Ben Olson, is a mormon who started out his career at BYU. He came back from his 2 year mission and decided that he didn’t want to play there so he transferred to UCLA. Olson was one of the top recruits in the history of BYU so this really hurt. Football fans were furious at the kid for making the choice despite not knowing who he would be playing for as his head coach. Gary Crowton was on his way out at the time and Olson was up in the air as to what would happen. I would listen to radio show after radio show and they all went after this kid for doing the wrong thing and making a bad choice.
Yesterday I went scouring around the BYU message boards to look for material for my blog and it was easy to find. The people who claim to be so forgiving and loving were making me sick with comments of happiness surrounding another person’s injury. When i talk about wishing Emmitt Smith got hurt because I didn’t want him to break Walter Payton’s record I’m only joking about it. These people were literally happy that Olson broke his foot and will miss a good portion of the season and potentially ruin a pro career in football. To make it worse, Olson will miss the game against BYU at BYU this year. One fan wrote: “It serves him right.” Another wrote: “In life we make good choices and bad choices. Good things happen when we make good choices and bad things happen when we don’t”. Another fan: “I was hoping he would play against us so we could hurt him.”
The BYU fan is a different breed. Not all are like this but this type of fan has no place in college football. I’m a Utah fan when they play BYU and this is exactly why. I love BYU and what it stands for but when one person or group wishes bad on someone else especially based on a sporting event, it kind of makes me sick.
