My son is True-BYU-Blue-Through-and-Through.
Now, James and I both went to BYU. I loved BYU! But I'm not a football fan, or a fan of any sport, really. James likes him some football on occasion, but he's not obsessed. Neither of us are die-hard BYU fans. Of course we'll root for our alma mater when they're playing, but we're not fanatical about it. (Most likely I won't even watch the game.) We like and respect other schools. We even --gasp!-- will root for the University of Utah when they're not playing BYU, and we feel pride to see them succeed. We just don't think that rivalries are a big deal.
Dallin, apparently, has not inherited our laizzes-faire attitude about either sports or rivalries.
In his mind, the Utes might as well be the mortal enemy of all that is good.
I honestly don't know where he picked this up! James and I certainly do not portray this kind of attitude at home. The Big Game between the two schools was played a couple of weeks ago, and of course there was some controversy in the aftermath of it, but we tried very hard to keep all of that away from Dallin, even stuff that was on the news and in the paper. He certainly does not need any fodder for his fan-dom.
But for the past three days, ever since he spent some time with his 10-year-old cousin, all we've heard is: "Joy to the world, the Utes are dead, we _________ their helmets!" (I can't remember the exact word he uses, even though he has literally sung this little ditty NON-STOP for three days, until we've been so sick and tired of it that we've threatened to banish him to his room to sing all by his little lonesome. Oh. My. Goodness!!!!)
I think it started with Dallin's teacher, whom he loves, who hates BYU. I don't know for sure if she is a Ute fan or not, but she detests BYU, and she and Dallin have their own little rivalry going on (or at least Dallin does). Dallin wears his BYU hoodie every day just to show Mrs. A, just to make sure that she doesn't ever forget which team he loves. He would write little notes to her on his homework, like "Hey, Miss A. BYU rocks! Ha Ha Ha!" She's teased him that she was going to get him a Utah shirt or something for Christmas, and of course he's thoroughly enjoyed blasting that idea out of the water.
I guess I should be happy and proud that my son likes my school.
James actually applied for a job at the University of Utah not too long ago (he didn't hear anything back about it), and I thought it would be SO funny to tell Dallin, "Hey, guess what, your dad's going to work for the UTES!!!"
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