The Cult of Bronco
 

First off, I don?t blame Bronco for who he is. Whatever that is. After all, I don?t know who he is. I can guess, but since I only know his public face, that?s all I can really comment on.

Second, it?s probably hard to understand what kind of pressure Bronco was under as BYU coach. What was the AD telling him? What about the school president? What about the Board of Trustees? He must have gotten the message that he needed to convey that religion is much more important than football.

No reasonable believing member of TCOJCOLDS can argue with this notion. Of course religion is more important than a recreational sport. But at the same time it?s sort of weird when a coach becomes the de facto religious leader. And that whole thing is what made the Bronco era particularly strange. You have this sort of quiet, intense, non-communicative guy who suddenly becomes a religious PR guy.

Bronco doesn?t strike me as being all that interesting a person. I have this bias against persons that like to read self-help and business leadership books - they are probably really boring people or they couldn?t stomach reading that stuff. Much less tell anyone else about it. But to be fair, that makes him the same as 95% human beings on the planet. Maybe Bronco really is an intellectually curious person. How would I know?

Regardless, the level of worship and admiration for him among a segment of BYU fans strikes me as weird. LaVell never got that. LaVell was a legend, but he never had a cult following. Sitake will never have a cult following. He?s just a goofy guy who likes to dance and get excited. It must be a kind of personality that is attracted to the Cult of Bronco, the sort of person that sees himself in Bronco. Resolute, uncompromising, stoic, stubborn, religious.

I remember that Goatnapper once posted his theory that Bronco never was religious or even particularly practicing until he got to BYU and was kind of thrown into it. Sort of like these apocryphal stories you hear about the inactive guy being called as Bishop or Stake President.

Like the guy? Sure. Respect the job he did? Why not. Join the Cult of Bronco? Hard pass.