ESPN reporter Ryan McGee took a shot at BYU’s performance last weekend — and upset more than a few fans with a joke about the Latter-day Saint faith and church founder Joseph Smith.
While listing the Cougars as one of the worst 10 teams in college football (McGee routinely picks one good team that has just suffered a bad loss), McGee made a remark about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that sparked a backlash on social media.
“Legend has it that after the angel Moroni showed Joseph Smith the golden plates upon which the Mormon Church was founded, he also warned Smith to make sure to heed the oft-forgotten inscription located on the scripted up backside of the plays: ‘BEWARE OF THE COVETED FIFTH SPOT LEST IT BITE YOU IN THE BEHIND IN LUBBOCK,’” McGree wrote and ESPN published.
Latter-day Saints believe that Moroni, an ancient prophet, visited Smith and directed him toward the gold plates that became the Book of Mormon.
BYU is owned and operated by the church.
Followers of the church were upset by McGee’s comments.
“How is this ok?” former BYU basketball player Jonathan Tavernari asked on social media.
The reporter responded to some readers, initially doubling down on his words.
“Story I’ve told on Marty & McGee 20 times. Something my father said to me at Sunday School. Pointed to a poster of Moses holding the Ten Commandments and said, ‘There was an 11th Commandment on the back of the tablets people forget about. Thy shall not be a jerk,’” he wrote.
ESPN later removed the line from the story and McGee apologized.
“Apologies for the earlier insensitivities,” he said. “Certainly wasn’t my intent. ... Ill-advised jokes can be deleted. Ill-advised game plans cannot.”