Brigham Young University star recruits Ryder Lyons and Brock Harris are stepping away from football and stepping up to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Nothing new there. After all, about half the players on coach Kalani Sitake’s roster at the church-owned Provo school are former missionaries.
But Lyons and Harris say they are going on one-year missions. Of course, Latter-day Saints can — and do — leave their missions whenever they want. Yet the church maintains that full-time proselytizing missionaries are “expected to serve their full term of service” — two years for young men and 18 months for young women.
Still, Harris and Lyons are announcing in advance their intention to fulfill half that stint.
Is it good for them? Is it good for BYU? Is it good for the church?
On a recent episode of The Salt Lake Tribune’s “Mormon Land” podcast, Tribune sports writer Kevin Reynolds, who covers the Cougars, and columnist Gordon Monson discussed those questions and more.
Here are excerpts that have been lightly edited for clarity and length:
What have the players said about their mission decisions?
Reynolds • Ryder Lyons is the best quarterback recruit that BYU has had in a very long time, in decades. When he committed to BYU, he announced he was going to go on a mission, but just for one year and return in 2027. Then Brock Harris announced the same timeline. He was also a very highly rated recruit. This trend didn’t start with these two players, even though they are the most visible at BYU. It started a couple of years ago with Walker Lyons, who was a very highly rated LDS recruit. He was going to commit to [the University of Southern California], but he was also recruited by BYU and others. He was one of the first to announce beforehand, not only that he was going to go on a mission, but that he was going to go to Norway, and he intended to come back in 12 months. He ended up staying 16, but he wanted to come back and play immediately at USC. In college athletics, it’s a very new era where players can make more money than they’ve ever made. So the calculus has changed.
Why did Ryder and Brock make this decision?
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kevin Reynolds covers Cougar sports.
Reynolds • Brock mentioned that this was his calculus about the amount of money he can make at BYU. He signed a multiyear contract worth over a million dollars. Ryder is going to make millions of dollars as well, and that’s not even considering the NFL money that they’re going to make. He said this amount of money can “set up my family for a very, very long time, and it could be life-changing.” At the same time, he also wanted to have the missionary experience, because, by all accounts, he’s a very faithful guy, and he wanted to find a way to split the difference. For a long time, he said that he didn’t think serving a mission was going to be possible for him because of the two-year commitment, and that was going to be too long and he was going to come back and not be able to play football effectively, potentially sacrificing money at the NFL level or at BYU. When this [one-year mission] was put on his radar, that’s when he decided that this was going to be what he wanted to do to get the best of both worlds.
Monson • One of the things he told Kevin was that it’s better to serve one year than not at all. Hard to argue that point.
What was the church’s response to the players’ announcements?
Reynolds • The church has come out, at least publicly, and said that the standard time is still two years, and they have not wavered on that. But the church hasn’t said a ton publicly. When you talk about the church saying there’s no exceptions for BYU football players or very high-level athletes, Brock Harris said in response, “Well, yes, the sacrifice is two years, and part of the mission experience is because it is so long and because you have to sacrifice something [as part of their religious experience].” But two years for him isn’t necessarily the same as two years for an 18-year old who doesn’t have the amount of earning potential right out of high school that he does. Sacrifice looks different for everybody.
Was the reason to announce their intentions to avoid the stigma that comes with returning early from a mission?
Reynolds • Brock Harris talked about this. He said he’s still facing blowback from people who know him — not just people whom he doesn’t know, who are members of the church, but people he knows every single day. He goes to church with them on Sundays, and they’re still telling him, “Hey, you’re not doing this the right way.” Brock Harris’ dad told him, “If you go down this path, you’re going to face a lot of pushback from people.” And the dad said, “It’s wrong to judge an 18-year-old. You shouldn’t do that. You’re not in Brock Harris’ position.” But [Brock] also knows the inevitability that he is going to face pushback.
(Julio Cortez | AP ) BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) runs for a gain in the Big 12 Conference championship game against Texas Tech.
What about those anti-Mormon chants?
These chants have now broken out at a number of BYU football and basketball games. Why do you think this is happening now?
Reynolds • BYU is so much more visible on people’s minds who have never thought about the school before. This is their first major interaction with BYU because they are now in the Big 12. Now they’re on a national stage. Now they’re contending for college football playoffs. The other part of it is that for the average college-age student, [Mormonism] is weirdly on their radar, even if they don’t know a lot of people, because they’ve seen shows on Netflix, on Hulu, on all these streaming platforms depicting the LDS Church in not always the best light.
Monson • It’s kind of a mixed bag for the church, because on the one hand, they want publicity, they want their profile to be high, but then they get the blowback. Is it church history? Is it social issues? Some of these kids, who are enjoying adult beverages at the game, may not have ever even thought about any of that stuff. They just get caught up in it. It started. And then people hear about that, and the next guy comes up with it. Let’s do this. And it doesn’t help when BYU is kicking their trash all over the field. And that happens a lot, and the better BYU gets — People begrudge winners sometimes, and we’ll see where it goes from here.
What can be done about it?
Monson • These lame excuses or apologies that we’re hearing from administrators are not enough to get it fixed. It’s a bigger challenge really, because members of the faith are not the faith itself, and that is not really seen all that favorably in some places. I’m not asking for victim-blaming them, but I am saying that the church will need to do things to improve that image….I know it’s on their mind. They want to bridge this gap and erase this kind of [bigoted] nonsense.
Reynolds • [Some members] wish that BYU or the church or somebody would just take a little bit of a stronger stand and say, “This is not OK.” When this chant happened at Colorado, BYU was more outspoken in saying that this was not OK and that led to a $50,000 fine from Big 12. They also increased security in the stands, where now inside the student section, there are plainclothes security people. You could threaten the immediate removal from the game. Your season tickets could be on the line. Before the game, Texas Tech’s basketball coach said, “Hey, I know you guys want to win, but you’re going to be thrown out if you have offensive chants.” If BYU is more outspoken, this issue is more [in the conversation] for institutions that have no real interaction with BYU. Maybe that will help.
What does their coach think about this?
Reynolds • Kalani Sitake hasn’t said much about this, other than that he supports his players going on missions and those who do not go on missions. And that it’s their own voluntary choice. I do think they’re going to have to say something more beyond that, because BYU is now in the Big 12. They’re paying so much money to players. Brock Harris and Ryder Lines used to be the anomaly at BYU, guys who come around once in a generation. But that’s increasingly not going to be the case…and this is a huge part of the recruiting pitch.
Monson • I know that Kalani would give the party line, but I’ve had conversations with him privately, and every time I’ve ever talked to him about church and about players and about service, he is on the side of the individual, as opposed to the organization. I think he wants whatever the kid thinks is best for him.
What’s the physical cost of a mission to an athlete?
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tribune columnist Gordon Monson.
Monson • How many times have we heard coaches say BYU has mature players who have an advantage of an extra two years plugged into their eligibility, and that’s an advantage? But I have asked that question to well over 100 return missionary athletes, and every single one of them said it’s a disadvantage, not an advantage. These guys aren’t going to L.A. and heading down to Gold’s Gym every week or every day to work out. Missions are brutally difficult — they’re tough physically, they’re tough mentally, they’re tough spiritually. It’s a difficult thing to do, and it is a great sacrifice. They aren’t out pumping iron, getting ready for their football careers.
How are one-year missions good for BYU sports?
Reynolds • From a football perspective, it’s undeniably better for Brock Harris and Ryder Lyons to be able to play [sooner] ....So [BYU] is budgeting this out and saying this is exactly when Ryder Lyons and Brock Harris will be at their best for us, which won’t be in three years. It will now be in like, two years.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU fans cheer as the Cougars host Pacific in December.
Is there any way in which this is bad for the school?
Reynolds • It puts [BYU] in a really difficult position, from a public relations [standpoint] At BYU ... everything’s tied to the church there. So every one of these problems that they have, like, how to explain this, or what does this mean for the missionary program? ... It creates a whole other issue, particularly from the outside, on how they’re seen, not even just within BYU’s own ecosystem, but outside, like the perception of you’re writing your own rules. ... BYU has already had a lot of that perception going on with how much money they’re putting into the athletic programming. ... Does it jive with its religious mission?
What does it mean for the church to de facto allow one-year missions?
Monson • Quite frankly, I think it sends a positive message that “hey, we’re living in the real world here,” and it’s OK to to massage these things a little bit if somebody has a special talent and they need to get to it. ... You could be a concert pianist or you could be a great engineering student. Those [students] can make a lot of money, too, the sooner they hit the workforce. And so the church is in a tough spot.
What do you think of the assertion that Ryder and Brock are getting “special treatment” because they are star athletes?
Monson • Some people might view it that way. One of the biggest problems in the LDS Church, in my opinion, is people judging one another. I don’t think there’s room for that. People could look at it and call it “privileged.” I would call it individualized. But I don’t expect this to catch fire and everyone’s going to do it. … Ultimately, these are spiritual, personal decisions that individuals in the faith have to weigh as they see fit, and I’m not going to question anybody in that regard.
Should the length of missions be up to the individual?
Monson • That would create [organizational chaos in the missionary program] but it might be in the church’s best interest to do it that way. They’re not joining the Army here, although maybe some of them feel like that’s what it is. The church has certain ways of doing things, but they’re still dealing with individual souls. Each person is different and should be treated with that in mind.
Note to readers • To hear the full podcast, go to sltrib.com/podcasts/mormonland. To receive full ad-free “Mormon Land” episodes, along with our complete newsletter and access to all Tribune religion content, support us at Patreon.com/mormonland. This story is available to Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.