By Jeremy Twitchell
Red and white.
If you think about it, they are the perfect colors for the University of Utah. After all, its players and fans turn into rednecks and white trash, as they proved again Saturday in the Marriott Center.
I?ve always suspected that such a description was true. But during the events surrounding Saturday?s basketball game, my suspicions were proved to be correct in a red and white sea of immaturity.
I don?t know when the exact moment was that I came to that realization. Maybe it was when the Utah players ran to midcourt after the game to taunt fans. Or maybe it was outside after the game, when I watched a Utah fan sneak up behind a BYU fan, steal his sign and then punch the BYU fan when he turned around.
Then again, it could have been the Utah fan that held up a life-size, anatomically correct female blow-up doll during the first half whenever BYU was at the free-throw line.
Granted, BYU is a religious school, and naked dolls are pretty offensive in such a place. But actions like that denote a total lack of class, regardless of where they are performed.
But it didn?t seem to offend the surrounding Utah fans, who enjoyed it just as much as the attention-starved guy that hoisted the doll. By the way, how much do you want to bet that that guy is single?
I grew up in Salt Lake, and some of my earliest memories are of accompanying my father to BYU-Utah games and being taught that blue is good, red is evil. My father taught me a lot of things, many of which I had to establish for myself at a later age. Saturday?s game established one more of those teachings.
I?ve seen fans from both sides do a lot of dumb things over the years. Like the BYU fan who tried to tackle a Utah cheerleader at a football game a couple years ago and learned the hard way that male cheerleaders really are tough.
But the difference is, and always has been, that Utah fans don?t know where the line is. Maybe it?s just covered up with their own drunken vomit.
Despite all of this, however, BYU fans should be grateful. It?s a lot of fun to have a rival that you really hate, and the University of Utah makes that job easy for us.