Too Blessed To Be Stressed

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I have some time on my hands tonight; so I decided to take some time to sit down and write a few thoughts down. I don't promise anything extremely exciting, but I hope at least one person reads and enjoys what I am about to say.

It's football season, and I think everyone reading this probably already know how much I love football--especially BYU's football team. Man, I really do love that team. But my reason for loving BYU's football team might be a little different than the usual BYU fan's reasoning. I am not usually very open about this idea because it's a little strange, but man...I really feel like BYU football has helped me through some of the toughest times of my life. 

Now, allow me to explain myself before anyone calls me sacrilegious or something. Perhaps the best way to do this would be by giving you an example or two. Possibly three:

The first example is really simple and actually has to do with the sport. It was in 2006, and life wasn't the greatest for me as I was struggling through some tough transitions in my life. I wasn't much of a sports fan. I hated sports, actually. But I enjoyed going to my high school's football game in November 2006, and so I decided to give sports a chance. My first opportunity came when I heard BYU was playing Utah. At the time, I didn't realize how big that rivalry was, but I knew it was a rivalry and so I decided to just cheer for BYU since it was the school I always dreamed of attending. 

I didn't know it when the game first started, but by the time that game was over, I would have learned a valuable life lesson: To never give up--even when things seem impossible. How did BYU teach me this? With one minute left in the game, BYU was down 27-31. They needed to go 90+ yards to win. I remember thinking, "Man, it's over. It's not even possible to go that far in a minute." For those of you who don't know, John Beck threw a 15-yard, game-winning touchdown pass to Jonny Harline as time expired to win the game. 

That first experience with BYU football was enough for me to continue following them. In the process, I fell in love with their coach Bronco Mendenhall. Not because of his awesome name or because of his abilities to coach football, BUT because of his courage to put faith and the Gospel before football. As a used-to-be sports hater and a lover of the Gospel, that intrigued me that he would do that. And so I've followed Bronco and BYU football ever since.

And in the process I've learned a lot of life lessons from Bronco. Before my mission four years ago, I attended a BYU football fireside in Las Vegas the night before the BYU vs. UNLV football game. I had my mission call, and I was starting to worry a lot about my mission. I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull it off. I was doubting in myself. But attending that BYU football fireside was huge for me. I can't remember what he said, but Coach Mendenhall spoke, and the things he said were exactly what I needed to hear.

Since that experience at the fireside, I've learned a lot from the football players themselves. One of the most impressive things I've ever seen was last year in 2012 when BYU played Utah. BYU was favored to win, but they lost on a missed field goal. I remember thinking, "Man, that really sucked." I decided to watch the post-game show, and when I turned it on, BYUtv was interviewing Kyle Van Noy. I sat there and thought, "Oh boy...He's probably so mad."

Kyle Van Noy became my hero that day, though. When they asked him what was going through his head during the defeat, all he said was something along the lines of, "I was just thinking about what a blessing it is for me to play this game. I was thinking what a blessing it is to play with my team mates."

Even more impressive was this year when again BYU was favored to win. Kyle Van Noy had never beaten Utah. He was 0-3. This was the year. I was positive it was. I'm sure KVN was positive it was. Heck, every BYU fan was positive it was. But BYU lost 20-13.

Kyle Van Noy's reaction?

Too blessed to be stressed. Again, KVN taught me that when things don't go our way in life, we just need to count our blessings and focus on what we do have.

And these are only a few examples. The list could go on and on, but it suffice me to just say that I am really grateful for BYU's football team and the things they've taught me--especially players like Kyle Van Noy and coaches like Coach Mendenhall. Football is just a game that I've learned to enjoy, but BYU football is a program that I've learned to love because of the small lessons they've taught me--on and off the field.