Temple Square

By now, unless you've been living in a cave, you've heard about the incident on Temple Square's Main Street Plaza. A male gay couple was arrested for displaying public affection, after they were apparently told to stop. The Church issued a statement yesterday defending the action of their security guards, claiming the aggressive treatment they meted out was necessary and appropriate. They claim that the couple was "...engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language and had obviously been using alcohol" and after being politely asked to stop, then they were arrested. The Church's claim about this couples behavior is hard to accept for various reasons, especially considering no eye witnesses have said anything that backs up this Church statement. There are certainly enough gay averse people at Temple Square to draw all sorts of verbal support if this actually happened. Also, the Church released this statement--which enhanced the behavior of the couple--after it initially claimed they were merely kissing passionately.

The security guard(s) involved obviously don't like gays, and they used their position of authority to do something about their dislike. Instead of defending such unnecessary behavior, the Church should apologize for the incident and fire the securit guard(s). Whether they realize it or not, their defiant stance on Prop 8, coupled with this, continues to make them look more and more bigoted. The more the Church digs in its heels, the more it hurts itself and its members. Fairly or not, people all over the world are viewing the Church more negatively than they have in a long time, and this invites unnecessary and uncomfortable interactions when people run into us--Mormons.

I have kissed my wife many times at Temple Square--at times "passionately"--and I've never seen any form of security bat an eye. This couple was obviously treated differently than a heterosexual couple would have been. This isn't like defending traditional marriage, which obviously has enormous social implications; it was simply a couple enjoying a beautiful location, and they shared the moment the way a lot of us do. Once again, the Church's response has been saddening and embarrassing; they should apologize, fire the security guard, and work to improve relations with the gay community. More and more Mormons are coming out of the closet, and the Church needs to find a better way of relating to them.

ESPN The Magazine 2024

In homes across the country, little boys begin rooting for "their" teams by the time they're old enough to sit up straight. Before they can even hold their own bottle, they are learning that their dads always know more than the coach and that referees are bad men. They become aware of the evil in this world--the rival team--and they learn what colors are acceptable in their homes. While they still drool all over themselves, they have dad intently explaining what the defense needs to do, or why the quarterback should pump fake and go long. In homes like these, the chosen team becomes a part of the family--often times, dad's favorite kid--and the little boy begins to treat the team like his favorite sibling. This story begins in 2005, when Sammy Taylor was born into a home like this, with a sibling named BYU.

When Sam was born, BYU was in the midst of a program slump. After a 20 year stretch of tremendous success under the legendary coach, LaVell Edwards, the Cougars had suffered a number of losing seasons in the new century. When Edwards retired, the Cougar faithful had already begun getting restless---Edwards last few years were unsuccessful by his standards--and they were more than ready for offensive guru Gary Crowton to take over. In Crowtons first year--2001--BYU started 12-0 and gave Cougar fans National Championship ideas. In 1984, BYU beat Michigan 17-10 to win its only National Championship, and that one Championship was enough to always give Cougar fans the hope and belief that another one was possible. Towards the end of the Cougars 12th victory in 2001, their superstar player, Luke Staley, broke his leg. Without Staley, the Cougars dropped their last 2 games to finish 12-2--another year without a title. Inspite of the poor finish, BYU fans had sky-high expectations for Crowton and the program, but following the dominant 2001 season, things went downhill. 2002 ended up being the Cougars first losing season in nearly 30 years, and a couple more losing seasons followed, sending Crowton out the door and bringing in Bronco Mendenhall. Mendenhall began rebuilding the program, but National Championship thoughts were non-existent--not just because of the lack of ability in the BYU program, but because of the BCS. This was the football environment that Sam was born into when he joined the Cougar faithful in 2005.

Even though BYU wasn't as good as it had been in its glory days of the 80's, Mendenhall had helped the Cougs back to respectability. Unfortunately, respectability, even greatness, weren't enough because of the BCS setup, which would allow the Cougars to play a perfect season and get a BCS game but no chance for a National Championship. None of this fazed Sam's dad, Steve, from brainwashing Sam to love the Cougars. As a young kid, Sam didn't exhibit a lot of toughness, so his dad always talked about having him play tennis--anything that didn't require the kinds of things football does. Sam liked watching football, he liked trying to play catch, and he had a decent arm, but none of that gave Steve the impression that Sam could be a football player.

When Sam turned 8, an enormous change took place in College football--the BCS system was changed and a 16 team playoff was created; it included the conference champions from the 10 division one conferences, and 6 at large teams. After years of trying, proponents of a playoff system had finally succeeded, in a bigger way that most had hoped for. Fast Forward 11 years, and BYU still hasn't won another National Championship. Since the format changed to a playoff in 2013, BYU has made the Playoffs 6 times, where they have a 1-5 record. In 2016, BYU got an 8 seed and knocked off Ohio State, a 9 seed. After that first round win, the Cougars faced the topped ranked Gators--they lost 56-14--and they have only been to the playoffs twice since then, losing in the first round both times.

As college football continued to improve the way it crowns a champion, Sam continued to improve as an athlete. While he may not have shown early signs of football skill, by the time he was 8, Sam was starting to excel. His first year of pee-wee football ended up being the kind of season that gets better and better everytime its retold by someone, mainly because it was so dominant. As a quarterback, Sam ran and threw for 121 touchdowns, all while throwing only two interceptions and fumbling once. He wasn't sacked the entire season, and that's not because he had a line full of Orlando Paces'. The instincts, speed, vision, and elusiveness that Sam displayed then have continued to improve and he's put up those kind of stats at every level. By the time he was a senior in high school, Sam was considered the top QB prospect in the country. He found every big-time school putting on the full court press, all trying to get him to cast aside BYU so he could win a National Championship. He admits that he briefly thought about Florida and USC--both schools have been dominant for the last 2 decades--and Urban Myers 6 National Championships, plus the weather in Florida, were really difficult to turn down. But in the end, he had to go with the team he's loved his entire life, and he chose BYU, even if that meant success would be getting past the first round of the playoffs.

After a freshman year spent learning on the sidelines, Sam earned the starting job for the Cougars this year. Midway through this season, BYU is ranked 3rd in the country, undefeated, and considered a real title contender by just about everyone. The Cougars are 6-0, with wins coming over three of those wins coming over top 15 teams--all by at least 2 touchdowns. The most impressive win was the opening game of the season, when the Cougars went to South Bend, and knocked off the 2nd ranked Fighting Irish, 34-13. In that game--the 1st start of his career--Sam had a stat line from a video game: 31-35, 427 yards, and 4 touchdowns, with no picks. Those video game numbers have continued, with Taylor compiling a staggering 6 game total: 81% completion percentage, 2,500 yards, 31 touchdown passes, 1 interception, 320 rushing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, and no fumbles. Taylor currently leads all the early Heisman Ballots by a mile--the last and only Cougar to win the Heisman is Ty Detmer--and no one can say his stats have come against inferior competition. The MWC has 4 teams in the top 25--Utah, TCU, Boise State, and BYU--and the Cougars still haven't played their 3 ranked conference foes; if they are all still ranked when they play BYU, the Cougars will have played 6 teams inside the top 20.

All of the stats are great; possibly winning the Heisman would be nice; getting a spot in the Playoffs would be good; none of that matters to Taylor. Winning one game in the playoffs is a start, but to Sam, only winning the National Championship would be truly satisfying. He recognizes that he's downplaying a lot of significant achievements that have rarely or never happened at BYU, but he wasn't around when BYU won their only National Title. To him, the only meaningful thing he can do in his career as a Cougar is to end that drought. If he does, he just might surpass Jim McMahon, Steve Young, & Ty Detmer, and be considered the greatest Cougar QB ever. As a magazine, we don't root for any particular team, but we wouldn't mind writing a follow up story a couple of months from now, asking Sam Taylor how it feels to be a Heisman Trophy winning National Champion.

Shock

Last night, I was watching the local news when a story came on about a local Seminary Principal that had just been arrested for having a sexual relationship with a 16 year old student. When they said his name was Michael Pratt, my interest really peaked because I had a Brother Pratt when I was a sophomore. I was really hoping it wasn't the Bro. Pratt I knew, but when they showed his picture my stomach dropped.

Until my sophomore year--and after--I felt seminary was very boring. Brother Pratt changed that; he made seminary fun enough that I actually looked forward to it. He was a really exciting, dynamic teacher that bonded well with his students. We became pretty good friends; we found out that we're related through my mom's side of the family (Parley Pratt is a grandpa to both of us). He left my high school for a job at Lone Peak my junior year, so I hadn't seen or thought about him in a long time.

Message boards for all of the local news channels and newspaper are full of comments by people that loved Brother Pratt. There are also lots of people that are completely trashing the guy, and they're trashing the Church too. First of all, what Brother Pratt did was wrong, but he's not a mass murderer, or a child molester--he had a consensual relationship with someone legally too young. He took advantage of a student, he abused his position of trust and authority, and he completely betrayed his wife and kids. He also ruined his life; he's already been fired, his wife will probably leave him, and he's going to spend a good amount of time in prison. I'm sure that if he could, Bro. Pratt would give anything to go back in time and not make the same mistake. Brother Pratt isn't an evil person, and people should stop saying that he is. Whether people want to admit it or not, the bad decisions he's made don't cancel out the positive impact he had on thousands of students over the last 13 years. He helped a lot of kids; he probably helped a number of teenagers top using drugs, or avoid doing other dangerous things that could have killed themselves.

Ultimately, the whole situation is tragic. It's sad that a 16 year old girl will have to live with this for the rest of her life; it's sad that Bro. Pratt has ruined his life, and temporarily destroyed his family's as well; it's sad for all of the people that knew and loved Bro. Pratt; and it's sad for teachers in general who get scrutinized enough as it is. For those of you who think the absolute worst of Bro. Pratt, try and think about more than the over-the-top thoughts and comments being made about him. The girl was 16, not 8; that doesn't make it okay, but he's not a pedophile. He was a good man, probably in many ways still is, and that's what makes the whole situation so sad. Anyway, I'm absolutely shocked, and quite sad, by this news.

Roger's Greatness

I know that I wrote a post about Roger about 2 weeks ago, but now that he's officially passed Pete's record, I need to reiterate a few things. Even though Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, and other tennis greats have said they believe Roger is the greatest player ever, there are still a number of sports analysts that aren't willing to give Roger the GOAT title.

One of the arguments used by Roger Doubters, is that Fed has a losing record to a contemporary--Rafael Nadal. Head to Head, Nadal leads Federer 13 victories to 7. That number is somewhat inflated when we look at how those victories have come. Clay has always been a surface for specialists--meaning most players that are good on clay struggle on any other surface. There have been a few exceptions--Borg, Nadal--but for the most part, clay courters are 1 surface stars. On clay, Rafa leads Roger 9 to 2 in victories; they are tied at 2-2 on hard court, and Fed leads 2-1 on grass.

Many people believe that Rafa is the best clay court player in tennis history. There are plenty of goods reasons for that belief--he holds the record for most wins in a row on clay (81, ended by Fed), he won the first 4 French Opens he played in, and his clay court record since 2005 is 150-5, and at the French Open it is 31-1--and he's only 22. Roger has had to play the majority of his matches against Rafa on clay; if they had played 11 matches on grass, the record would certainly tilt Roger's way. By making it to the semi-finals at the French this year (which he went on to win), Federer tied a Roland Garros record with 5 consecutive semi's. So even though he has only won the title once out of those 5 tries, he's proven to be remarkably good and consistent on clay. A number of respected tennis greats believe Federer is one of the top 5 clay court players in tennis history, he just isn't good enough to consistently beat Nadal on the surface.

Federer's best surface is obviously grass--he's won 68 of his last 69 matches--so Nadal's Wimbledon victory is quite impressive. It seems like it's only proper that because Fed ended Nadal's record winning streak on clay, that Nadal returned the favor ended Fed's record streak of 65 straight wins on grass. Speaking of winning streaks by surface, Fed shattered the hard court record, by winning 56 straight matches (which wasn't ended by Nadal). The point of this, is that Nadal's head to head record doesn't do enough to Fed's legacy to legitimately dent his claim as the GOAT. Nadal is a great player--6 slams by the age of 22--and the fact that he has beaten Fed 13 times is remarkable. However, sports is very much about matchups and the Fed/Nadal matchup is nearly even, minus clay & grass, leaving hard court as the most neutral surface.

Some analysts have pointed out that although Fed has won 15 majors, guys like Laver would have won more titles without forced sabbaticals because of rules about professionals. It's true that Laver would have more than 11 titles if he had been able to play a full career; it's also true that when Laver played, 3 of the 4 slams were played on grass. If 3 of the 4 slams were played on grass today, Federer & Sampras would both have over 20 majors. Playing on grass so often would be a tremendous advantage for Roger, but that isn't the case today so other stats are needed to tell the tale.

Fed has now reached 21 consecutive semi-finals at the Slams, a monstrous record that more than doubles Ivan Lendll's second place record of 10 straight. 21 straight semi's is the most impressive record of Federers, it is the stat that towers above all others. For over 5 years, he has never missed the Final Four, he has never let minor injuries or sickness keep him down, he's never lost his focus, he's never let tight matches get to him, and he's never let an opponents best beat him. He made 10 straight Slam finals--the old record was 4--then he lost in the semi's (with mono), and now he's made 6 straight finals for the 2nd longest streak. Between the semi's streak, and the Finals streak, Fed has out distanced anyone, past or present, by a mile. In the last 6 years, Roger is 115-0 in Slams vs. anyone ranked outside the top 5. Fed has reached 15 major titles in a little over 6 years--it took Sampras 12 years to win 14. Fed had a 4 year stretch where he won 11 of the 16 Slams, something that no man or woman has ever done it tennis history. These are only some of the amazing stats that, along with 15 slams and the career slam, make Fed the greatest tennis player ever.

Comparing current players with past players is always subjective and difficult. I believe that today's athletes in every sport, are better individually. That individual improvement can be detrimental in a sport like basketball, but it makes sports like golf and tennis tougher. If the top 20 tennis players were put in a time machine and placed in a tournament--in their prime's--that would have everyone play everyone on every surface, I have little doubt that Fed would end up with the best record. Many tennis pros have said they believe he has the best all-around game they have ever seen, and I would agree. He is the most versatile player, with the greatest amount of skill to choose from when playing an opponent. No offense to Laver, but he would get worked in a tournament with guys like Fed and Sampras (Laver was 5-7, 130 pounds). A realistic analysis of the stats and records shows, conclusively, that Fed has the most impressive career resume, that he is the greatest of all-time, and that he will continue to pad his stats for at least a few more years.