Anti-LDS chants at games? ‘It is kind of a cross that you bear’ as a church member, says football star Britain Covey.

When Brigham Young University teams play on the road, they, like any visiting opponent, expect to encounter their share of jeers from the home crowd. But what happens when the razzing turns raunchy and when the boos give way to bigotry?

That occurs all too often at Cougar games. Obscene choruses — mostly emanating from opposing student sections — mock BYU’s sponsoring religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and members of that faith.

Why have Latter-day Saints and their beliefs become the target of such openly prejudiced chants? Do Catholics and Notre Dame run into the same hostility? And what, if anything, could or should BYU and church leaders do in responding to such discrimination?

Answering those questions and more in The Salt Lake Tribune’s latest “Mormon Land” podcast are Tribune sports writer Kevin Reynolds, who covers the Cougars and wrote about this issue in a recent special report, and Britain Covey, a practicing Latter-day Saint who started at the Cougars’ rival school, the University of Utah, plays for the world champion Philadelphia Eagles and has deep familial ties to BYU. Here are lightly edited excerpts from that discussion:

Tell us where this chant “F- - - the Mormons” chant has happened and how BYU responded.

Reynolds • In this decade of BYU athletics, we’re talking about three main instances of this chant occurring. The first was in 2021, when BYU football went on the road to play USC. It happened the next year, when BYU football went on the road to play at Oregon. And then, most recently, just a couple of months ago, when BYU men’s basketball went to play in Providence in Rhode Island, it happened again. Talking to BYU athletic officials for this story, they said that while those are probably the three most highly publicized instances of this happening, these aren’t really isolated incidents. [Cougar Jewish] quarterback Jake Retzlaff talked about how when BYU football went on the road to [Southern Methodist University], it happened again, even though that wasn’t as highly publicized. Scholars noted that this decade is a bit different from years past when BYU had chants or protests against them, because these chants haven’t been necessarily attached to a church policy or church teaching like they were maybe in the 1960s or ‘70s.

Where else has this happened in the world?

Reynolds • It’s been happening for a long time— [dating back to Rome and Greece and chariot races] — but on a more modern level, it happens in Glasgow, Scotland, when we look at some of the soccer scenes out there. There’s a school or a club called Celtic FC, which is a Catholic club, and whenever they play a Protestant club, Rangers FC, there’s often a chant of “Everybody hates Roman Catholics.” If you look at the World Cups in 2022 and 2018, FIFA, the soccer federation, fined the Mexican Football Federation for chants that were anti-LGBTQ at opposing goalkeepers. This isn’t isolated to just BYU, and it’s not isolated to just this time period.

Do you see these anti-religious chats against Catholics at Notre Dame, Georgetown or Boston College or Churches of Christ when Pepperdine plays?

Reynolds • I haven’t covered those games, but just speaking to people who do study this, they say it’s a lot less common, at least with Pepperdine and other schools. Mostly because there’s not a lot of schools that play high major college athletics at that level that are religiously affiliated. …With the Catholic schools, it actually tends to be intrareligious where these things manifest, maybe the Augustinian order versus the Jesuit order…BYU is kind of alone, really the only LDS-affiliated Division I giant.

Why do you think BYU becomes an easy target?

Covey • That specific chant might be unique to this generation, but I remember when BYU played TCU on the road back in the early 2000s and, being a little kid, seeing signs that said that very phrase. I remember when [BYU basketball star] Jimmer Fredette played San Diego State, and the whole student section was dressed up as missionaries, and there were some pretty obscene chants that came from that game. So I’ve seen this throughout my whole life to some degree. It is kind of a cross that you bear as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, right? I can’t tell you how many conversations I have in the locker room about misconceptions about the church. This is a weekly occurrence where we’ll just sit down for lunch with all my teammates, and they’ll just come up with something “big” and it’s just something that’s totally, you know, misconstrued or not true, and I always enjoy kind of clarifying those things.

Scholars say there is a ‘perfect storm’ for these chants popping up in recent years. Why is that?

Reynolds • There are so many shows right now.... I know it happened in 2011, too, with “The Book of Mormon” [musical] and Mitt Romney running for president 2012 as well. But with “American Primeval” and “Under the Banner of Heaven,” there have been so many blockbuster TV shows about the church that have put, I think, the church in a lot of people’s minds, but at the same time, it is a religious minority in America. ... It creates this almost disproportionate effect where a lot of people have heard about the church, or it’s in their minds, but they actually don’t know a single actual member of the church, where, I think it can create some of these misconceptions.”

What kind of religious bigotry, if any, did you encounter at Utah and in the NFL?

Covey • A good portion of the reason why I chose to go to Utah was to kind of break down some of those misconceptions, right? I was excited about the prospect of going up to Utah, just being a regular, everyday member of the church and serving a mission. I’d say the most hostility I faced was because I played a year before my mission, and I had a successful season. Then I chose to go on a mission. …Anyway, it comes down to people knowing other members, because my teammates protected me like none other. I will never forget going to house parties, and I would have offensive linemen just pick me up and take me out and say, “Covey, this is not for you.” Whenever I go speak to other youth members, I say to them the truer you are, and the more unashamed you are of your membership and your beliefs, the more people respect it. People ask me about my [temple] garments in the locker room. … I take an opportunity to tell why I do it and how important it is to me. And then, pretty soon, that teammate will be defending me if someone else brings up the garments. … I get so much respect from my teammates, the Philadelphia Eagles, especially this year, we actually were a very religious group. I have multiple group text messages with a lot of my teammates. We’ll send each other scriptures in the mornings. We will say a prayer and scriptures before every game. A lot of times, they have me do it. So I’ll obviously choose some scripture from the Old or New Testament. Football, in general, is a pretty religious sport. A lot of Christians in football.

When Utah and BYU would play each other in a game that’s sometimes been dubbed the holy war — or the unholy war, depending on a person’s point of view — what was that like?

Covey • I did have a couple of instances during a BYU-Utah game where I remember people saying things toward BYU and Mormonism and then wanting to look at that Utah fan and ask, “What? What about me?” At what point is there a line drawn where you do say something about this? These are all important discussions that we have. I’m sure the [church leaders] have it all the time. …I really do believe in free speech and I guess some could call that hate speech. Sometimes I think that actually has an inverse effect, where people learn what they don’t want to be a part of by hearing that stuff.

What should or could be the response when these vulgar chants happen?

Reynolds • There could be fines against institutions where this happens. One of the options would be to work with the Big 12 or a conference and say, “This is the policy,” you know, almost like a field-storming situation, right? We’ve seen that with the SEC, where, if you storm the field, you get a fine. But is that a big deterrent? There is some momentum, or at least some feeling within the fan base, that maybe BYU should speak out, maybe the church should speak out more. But how does that actually look in practice?

Covey • There is not a perfect solution, and you don’t want to fight fire with fire. At the same time, the example of kids [hearing these chants] is what would make people get off the couch and say, “OK, I can handle this, but I’m not having my 10-year-old daughter exposed to this.” …The most effective form is having a personal conversation [about] why it’s offensive. How do you bring that feeling to the masses? If the church continues to try and put out heartfelt, sentimental examples of why this is offensive, and let that kind of circulate, I think that has a greater impact than punishable things.

If BYU reacted more strongly when these chants occur, could it end up inviting more scrutiny of the school and church and their policies?

Reynolds • Scholar Matthew Harris, author of “Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality,” mentioned that. ... If BYU did speak out, there would be a very big focus on the church’s LGBTQ policies and how BYU treats its own students. ... So he said that is a factor and an element to any response from BYU or the church.

How has bad fan behavior affected players like you?

Covey • If you are at least at a big-time athletic event, college or above, you’re so used to being yelled at, jeered at. Nothing really affects your play. The truth is (and maybe this is a very depressing view of things), I’ve kind of given up hope at controlling fan bases. I think sports betting and things like that have magnified the fandom problem 100 times. From 2012 and before that to now, it’s a completely different atmosphere.

To hear the full podcast, go to sltrib.com/podcasts/mormonland. To receive full “Mormon Land” transcripts, along with our complete newsletter and access to all Tribune religion content, support us at Patreon.com/mormonland.

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