For the Greater Good

(Deep Breath)
(Here goes …)

Ahem.

Ladies and gentleman, I have an announcement to make.
I want the Utah Utes to win a football game.

Don't worry, Nathan, I haven't been drinking without you. No dad, of course I'm not dating someone from the U of U. Everything's alright. I'm fine. I just truthfully,sincerely want my most hated enemy to win a football game this year. In fact, I want them to win 11 games.

I have never previously wished success upon the Utes. In the past my BYU fanmanship has required that I hope for injury, failure, and embarrassment to befall the U of U’s football team in every game they play. As my desires have come true and the Utes have floundered, my joy has been full. Yet this year my hope for the Utes to suffer short term pain has been trumped by an even greater goal.

My ultimate desire is not to have the Utes morale shot down for just a couple of games, but rather have it be destroyed for years. This can only happen under one condition; that both the U of U and BYU enter their annual rivalry game undefeated. This is why I must hope for the Utes to win. If the stars align and both teams are 11-0 going into their head-to-head matchup, their rivalry contest will be played for:

1) the Mountain West Championship

2) a $14 million bowl game

3) ultimate bragging rights

The winner of such a game would take home every ounce of glory imaginable, while the loser would need years to recover from a loss of such magnitude.

I want the Utes to win because I want them to make it to that game. I want them to have all the hope in the world of victory, and then be destroyed by the Cougars. I want BYU to do to the Utes what Michael Jordan did to the Utah Jazz.

You see, in the mid-90's the Jazz had a superbly talented team;the squad had the potential to become a dynasty. Sadly, their hopes of multiple championships never made it off the ground. They were beaten twice in the finals by Michael Jordan, the second time by a painful last second jumper. That title-winning shot scarred the Jazz players for the rest of their careers. Stockton and Malone stayed with the Jazz for five more seasons following that loss, but they never again made it past the second round of the playoffs. The team couldn't recover from the blow. It wasn’t until 2007, when not a member of the 1998 championship team remained on the squad, that the Jazz returned to the conference finals.

If BYU can triumph over Utah in a game with truly everything on the line, then the Utes, too, will crumble and remain in shambles for years. And if I have to hope for Utah to win a few games before then to make their collapse possible, so be it. Hey, if Adam and Eve can sin to bring about a greater good, I figure that I can too, right?.