Adventure #18: BYU vs UVA

"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it." - Knute Rockne

September 20, 2014

Jordan and I didn't get an All Sports Pass for BYU, but we were lucky enough to get some tickets from a friend! The BYU vs UVA game was the only football game we were excited about, so getting tickets to watch the game was perfect. Because Jordan is from Virginia, he's always cheered for UVA. So he wore his Virginia gear and I wore my BYU stuff. Below is the view from our ticket seats.

It was a pretty good view!

It was kind of awkward for Jordan because he was cheering for both teams. Whenever he cheered for Virginia, this little boy on the right (pictured below) would turn around and give Jordan the funniest look. I didn't get a good picture of his face, but I suppose it's for the better. I'm telling you, this kid could not believe a living person would cheer for a non-BYU team. He looked at Jordan like Jordan was a crazy person. And it wasn't just a quick glance, it was a full on stare-down! haha

So we decided to move to an area where we could cheer freely: the visitor's section. It also happened to have closer seats, so it was a win-win. The people in the visitor's section were so nice! 

We could see just about everything on the field! (When they were on our side of the field)

Jordan felt at home in so many ways sitting in the visitor's section. Something happened soon after I took this picture, but I will tell that story at the end of this post.

Jordan and I had some friends that were sitting in the student section, so we decided to check it out.

Now we were close to the other endzone! lol

I've realized the students are usually fun to sit by. They enjoy the game for the game and tend to have a good attitude. Even though there's always that one person that tries to comment on every play but has NO IDEA what they are talking about, it's still pretty fun.

Okay, now for story time. Below is a picture of some UVA fans we sat behind while we were sitting in the visitor's section. They were super nice and funny. They had school spirit, but they also had good sportsmanship. Unfortunately there were some BYU fans a row or two in front of these UVA fans that did not have the same sportsmanship.

The girl with her hands in the air was so cute. She was cheering almost the entire game, but in a nice and fun way. She would dance to the music and cheer for her team. She was just having a blast. It made the game fun for us, too.

Continuing the story.... There was one BYU fan, sitting directly in front of the UVA fans, who's behavior was completely uncalled for. Anytime BYU had a good play (and I mean anytime! It was seriously every few minutes), he would turn around and face the UVA section and boast. He usually did this by yelling UVA's cheer to the UVA fans as a taunt. It was just silly, but the UVA fans just tried to enjoy the game despite his boasting. 

The BYU fan's behavior continued throughout the game, and was even more over the top during the third quarter. Finally he started saying something directly to the UVA girl (the same one from the picture). I didn't hear every word at the beginning, but after the BYU fan finished saying some choice words, the UVA girl finally said something. She told him he was an a** and that he was not a very kind person for yelling at her and the other UVA fans. The BYU fan said some choice words back to her. Then, another BYU fan said that he was going to make sure the UVA girl got kicked out of the game for her language. Anyway, the poor girl was just being attacked by a group of BYU fans. I felt especially bad because they were getting on her case for swearing. They completely disregarded the fact that one of the BYU fans was also swearing (using more swear words than she had).

The situation was just bad. The UVA girl sat down and she just looked super sad. Her husband was trying to calm her down, and she just kept telling him how sorry she was.

Luckily for me, I married a stud. As soon as the quarrel was over, Jordan went to talk to the UVA girl. He told her that he was a BYU student and fan, but obviously also a UVA fan because he was wearing his UVA shirt and hat. Jordan apologized for the other BYU fans and told them that not all BYU fans are that mean. He said there are good and bad people everywhere, and that he hopes she won't judge BYU because of the contentious fans.

I was so glad Jordan did that. She seemed a lot better after Jordan talked to her. Everything that had happened made me feel so sad. So sad that these BYU fans  completely missed a missionary opportunity. Most people know that BYU is a religious school. I wish that they would have taken advantage of having visitors at the stadium. Show people that we love Christ by being Christlike to ALL. We don't need to proselyte or anything, but we should always be good examples of our church and of Christ, no matter the situation.