"I Hate Utah"

Well, Max Hall knew in the end he wasn't going to be elevated to "Detmer" type status in the annals of BYU QB history by his work on the field because his team didn't win the conference his final two years (I think fans can forgive the BCS to an extent but you do have to win the conference to get elevated to "elite" status). So instead he did what he had to do to elevate himself into some type of pantheon; the pantheon of great quotes to follow the rivalry game. "I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything" and on and on.

I head this interview live on KSL as we were driving home from the game. The first thing out of my mouth as he said it? "YES! I now LOVE Max Hall! Way to bring it strong!" Hall absolutely raised his stock in my personal rankings of BYU QB's with that quote alone. If for nothing else he didn't serve up the traditional soft-serve answer complimenting the Utes team or some garbage like that. I'm so sick and tired of hearing players give the politically correct answer every time (and especially Bronco-coached BYU players) that it was absolutely refreshing and exciting to hear a player speak his mind for once. Yes, you could hear the excitement in the reporter's voices too as they knew Hall just launched a good two weeks worth of talk radio discussion for them. Patrick Kinahan basically shouted "Hooray!" when Hall said it because he knew his ratings for Monday's show will be through the roof.

Every paper and media outlet this morning is calling his remarks "classless". That is total garbage especially considering how much they love to latch on to it. It is headline city! Why would you hate those remarks? If it was coming from Stevenson Sylvester after a Utah win would you think he was classless? No! He probably hates the Cougs as much as Hall hates the Utes. Hall is no idiot and had to know as the words passed out of his mouth that he was launching a firestorm, and he didn't care and said it anyways. My reaction to that? Awesome.

Oh yeah, and I hate the dirty Utes too. :)

So as for the game. This was my first-ever live BYU-Utah game. Thanks to my buddy Jared Selman who called me Friday with tickets for Rachel and me. I had been told before that this game is more intense than any other and especially more intense live than TV can show. All I can say is that is absolutely TRUE! You could cut the intensity with a knife even before the game started and all the way through. We had Utes sitting next to us (who were cool by the way, but nevertheless I was extremely disappointed in how many Ute fans were in the stands which is purely a reflection of crappy cougar fans who sold out their tickets) and even though they were nice I just wanted to SCREAM at them after every single play. We stood the entire game and I've never cheered like that before for any game. We were in the North endzone right where Andrew George had the game winning TD catch and the feeling was as euphoric as I've ever felt. I will say I was IRATE at the coaching staff for the poor game management especially even settling for overtime when they could have had the ball back with over a minute to play and 2 timeouts if they would've played the game right, but I digress. All's well that end's well right? And on this night, and for the next year, the Cougs are on top! BOOM!

Apologies to Marriott

So when I travel for my 4 months of the year I stay the majority of the time in a Marriott Courtyard up in Washington. My coworkers know that I have been absolutely ROASTING this hotel all summer long mostly because they lost a couple important items of mine.

Back in May during one of my first stretches of staying, I left my set of P90X DVDs at the hotel. I called back as soon as I realized they were gone and asked if they turned up in the lost and found. Of course, they didn't. I would have expected a phone charger or computer cable of course but once something of actual value (these DVD's cost about $150) it mysteriously "was not found' by the cleaning people. I have been so upset about it all summer I have constantly bad mouthed Marriott.

Then, on my second to last week of staying in October I left my set of retainers that I wear at night while I sleep (value of $200 or so). This time I was gone for all of 2 nights before I came back to check in. I promptly asked for them and of course they didn't find them. I figured in this case, while they were valuable items, the cleaning people probably just saw a plastic case and threw it away. Nevertheless, I was even more infuriated as this was the second valuable item lost this year.

Yes, some of this is my own fault; I can't be forgetting things in my hotel room. I could've sworn in both cases I hadn't. Especially in the case of the retainers; once I had lost the DVD's I did a 3-times over clean sweep of my room every time I checked out. But alas, they were both gone forever. (You already know where this is going, right?)

So on Sunday night I go to put my "Sunday nap" blanket back under the bed and it gets jammed and won't go in all the way. I have to get down to see what it is. There is an old shoe box deep under the bed that has stopped the blanket. I grab the shoe box to pull it out and can feel that it has stuff inside of it. "What did I ever put in a shoe box under the bed?" I pull it out and open it and to my astonishment my DVD's are sitting in the box! Buried in the box are various other items that no doubt Cannon had gathered up and stored in this little treasure chest. The DVDs had endured their 5-month burial in prime condition. I took them out and flashed them to Rachel; she too was surprised and we both started chiding Cannon for losing our things!

I immediately knew that if the DVDs were home, so were my retainers. "Where are my retainers!" I started screaming at him. I asked him that same question over and over the rest of Sunday night and as soon as I got home yesterday. He must have got the message; Rachel walked in his room after I had been home for about an hour last night and my retainers, with my little case, were sitting on the floor in the middle of his bedroom. He must have fished them out from his secret hiding spot and left them there for mom and dad to find.

Dang kids. I can't believe it. I was literally on the verge of writing Marriott a letter berating them for their poor service because it was on my mind so often. I guess now I should write them a letter of apology.