Commentary: For BYU, Utah, Notre Dame and other college fans, religion and sports need not divide us

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 fans have taunted teams from Brigham Young University, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with religious slurs in recent basketball and football games.

A few weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, used his social media account to bully a 19-year-old kid — a University of Utah kicker — because the player followed his pregame practice routine at the same time a prayer was being said before the Utah-BYU football showdown in Provo.

I don’t think Jesus would want some young adult electronically stoned — in order to score a few cheap culture war points — merely because he may have unthinkingly or unintentionally disrespected someone else’s prayer time.

Catholic QB at LDS school

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 65,000 fans who likely believe something quite different but 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 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, well, not true.

That’s why I went away to college at the University of Notre Dame.

But then, during 1981’s March Madness, I endured the sports trauma of watching BYU star Danny Ainge dribble the length of the basketball court to beat Notre Dame 51-50 at the buzzer in the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen.

The loss felt like a theological pronouncement instead of a layup. But that was an 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 outcome of sporting events.

As a result, it’s actually fun when a young Latter-day Saint named Manti Te’o 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 — essentially did the same thing. She played in the Final Four as part of the Notre Dame women’s soccer team.

The conversion of ‘Rudy’

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 earned a degree from BYU. Like me, a BYU professor I know loves the former Utah Trappist monastery in Huntsville that 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 court case over access to records, 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 when then-church President Russell M. Nelson and Pope Francis exchanged gifts in the Vatican.

When Notre Dame played BYU in Provo a few years ago, the BYU police gave the Irish 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 halftime, he had made friends with all the other Golden 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, Cougar coach Kalani Sitake, and the dozens of BYU grads and fans I know who are some of my favorite people in the world.

After Ainge beat Notre Dame back four decades ago, a new joke circulated and eventually reached me — even in faraway South Bend, Indiana.

The story was that the 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 Salt Lake City.”

After many years of careful reflection, I am quite certain that this news is not as bad as I once thought.

Note to readers • Michael Patrick O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City who frequently represents The Salt Lake Tribune in legal matters. His book “Monastery Mornings: My Unusual Boyhood Among the Saints and Monks,” was chosen by the League of Utah Writers as the best nonfiction book in 2022. His new holiday novel, tentatively titled “The Merry Matchmaker Monk,” will be published in time for Christmas 2026. He blogs at theboymonk.com.