Mad Max

I might as well be the one to cover this since someone has to. After the BYU Utah game, BYU's QB Max Hall said some very disparaging things about the Ute football team. He said he hated everything about them: players, coaches, fans, program, groundskeepers etc. And it didn't stop there. He doesn't just hate them (because it's OK to hate your rivals) he finds all of them completely classless. Max's trademark has been his fiery competitiveness which can get out of control then he sometimes makes poor decisions. I think that's what happened here. He obviously harbors a great deal of resentment about his experience playing at RES last year. It appears his wife and family were treated poorly by fans at the stadium. I don't know any details. I DO know that if my wife had been subject to the kind of behavior his wife was treated to I would have been furious and it would be very hard to let go. Now I, personally, have only attended one game there myself but we were yelled at repeatedly and some not nice things were said including anti-LDS slogans (I will never understand this especially since almost half the Utah players are LDS). I want so hard to believe that these kind of fans are the exception to the rule and not the standard behavior for Utah fans. I mean, we are all good people who love football and love our team so I can only figure that the minority at RES is very vocal.

None of this excuses Max's comments. He should have toned it down. "I'm thrilled we beat them and I can't imagine a better way to end my college career than defeating our rival." That would have worked. I get the impression that Max is the kind of guy that reads press about himself and also the boards. I think it drives him crazy to be disparaged by Utah and BYU fans alike. I think a lot of pent up emotion just came exploding out. Max has been a great QB for BYU. His competitive spirit carried the team on more than one occasion. I believe that he deserves just about all the credit for beating OU, maybe the 2nd or 3rd biggest win in BYU history. But that fiery competitive spirit just won't let go of real and perceived injustices. I think we saw similar behavior by Michael Jordan at his hall of fame acceptance speech. It is too bad when great athletes can't enjoy their accomplishments fully without losing their heads over what happened along the way. Should Max say sorry? Probably. Do I understand how he feels? Yes.