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Show C4 The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH Sunday, November 21, 1999 ‘ Football: Holy War or Wholly War? TOM BARBER! LAURIE WILSON Run-In With Deputies Capped a Sad Week Lutz, still grievingfor his father, had domestic problems. But family denies he was suicidal : Says Ernie Martinez, another BY GREG BURTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE OGDEN — As a boy, Glen Lutz him lose his control, even when dandelions for pennies he was up against quotas and deadlines. He hadte write reports ing the copper coins to buy a baseball glove. Whenhis grandfatherdied, Lutz put the glove away and stopped playing baseball. and defend what he was writing, but he always knew what he was doing.it was stressful work.” picked from his grandfather's yard, savRESPONSE Tom, yesterday we watched the latest gridiron battle in Utah’s “holy war” between BYU and the UofU. And, although this rivalry, ; Just like actual war, is more un- holy than holy,it brought to mind » some of the great rivalries and conflictsofall time. Historically, we recall the wars ; between Athens and Sparta, and « Rome and Carthage. We remem- « ber the conflicts between Jews and Christians, Muslims and Christians, Christians and Christians, and the lions and the Christians. Notall historical rivalries and conflicts were religious. The race to discover the unknown parts of the world between Spain and Por- , tugal was about power and prop- erty, not religion. The race to col- onize the world by the English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and just about everyoneelse, while osten,Sibly religious, was really about powerand wealth. But the most famousconflicts, ,and those perpetrating the most W icious and abominableacts, were ' veligious: the Crusades, the Arab- To quote Frank Layden, “Utah isn’t aboutreligion; it's more importantthan religion.” Frank is right. Rivalry is more about who we are. Our team,religion, country, ethnic group, town, city, state, cadet all play a part in validating When my team wins, I win. Whentheylose,I am theloser, too — and weall hate tolose.It isn'ta “bullet” to score big. We use our ground game(troops) to advance on the enemy and invade their territory to storm their goal (fortress). We employa variety ofdefenses to keep the enemy from breaching ourlines and out of our endzone(rear echelon). Wewearthecolors of our team (tribe) and smearwarpaint on our faces and,in somecasesof serious mental disorder, our bodies. The main difference between today’s form of sports and combat in Utah we have the “holy war” enemy. Teams have 60 minutes, joke! the good (BYU), the bad (U. “pf U.) and the ugly(thereferees). Andwehavebuiltthis football rivalry into a religious war. But ‘that’s not unusual, given that most of America today has made football a religion. T read a book on pop culture that argued that even the struc- ‘ture of the gamederived from re- ligion: the end zones representing eternal life, the goal posts the gates of heaven with entry by the opposing evil force, the teams kneeling re the adver- sary at the beginningofeachplay. " (OK, so they don’t kneel, they squat. Squatting baie the adversary sounds perverse.) Even the ferminnlogy is poignant: the extra point and third down “conversions.” It’s a thing nobodytold Utah it would be facing a numberof conversionefforts by BYU. It sounds like the team was handing outthe Bookof Mormononthelineof scrimmage. As one who cares deeply for | your spiritual welfare, Tom, I , Would like to warn youofthe consequences of coming down on the wrong sideof oneof these holyri- { valries. I would liketo, but I can't. You see, by virtueof this column, it seems I sold my soul to this side of another Utah “holy war” —the one between The Trib and that other newspaperaroundthe corner. Laurie J. Wilson is the Depart- ment of Communications Chair at BYU. is that we only havea finite amountof time to vanquish our andif youfail to win, you have to sulk for a year before you have a chance to redeem yourself. ‘The samecan be saidofpolitics family, has had ups and downs because we were all close to my shipped hisfather.” Chaplin believes her brother never really got over their father’s death, but she doesn’t buy the idea he was to blame for his owntragic end. On_ Oct. 16, Weber County Sheriff's deputy Steve Haney reported Lutz blew cigarette smoke into his face, acted “nervous” and When asked why her husband would resist, Laurie Lutz allegedly told investigators that Lutz hated cops and “he probably wanted youto shoot him.” whenit comes to Republicans and Democrats. We have witnessed It had been a troubling week for Lutz. His wife of 25 years re- the unrelenting war played out in Washington between the Republi- vorce, a sheriff's report indicates. cansand the Clinton administration in the impeachment process, There was nothingthat the Republicans wouldn't do to try and stomp out Clinton and his camp, and the Democrats, despite their ownhatred ofClinton, fought just as hard to keep from being on the losing side. Thestrangest display I witness is when player scores or wins a game — beit football, tennis, cently told him she wanted a di- On Oct. 5, a nurse at McKay-Dee Hospital — where Lutz would eventually die — reported Lutz had called and threatened to kill his wife. Lutz later denied the report and a sheriff's deputy did nut pursue charges. Instead, the deputy gavethe couple a packet on avoiding or resolving domestic disputes. Weber County officials also say Lutz recently went to his baseball, basketball, golf or bass fishing — and thanks God for the victory. If God is a sports fan, he/ wife's employer — the IRS in Ogden — and caused a disturbance. TheIRSrefused to comment. Lutz family attorney Loni De- cause different teams and players experience winningandlosing all Land — whois advising Laurie on a potential wrongful-death the time. lawsuit against Weber County — Whenthetrophyis given to the victor, there is always some reference to thankingtheir God, Lord, and his wife are little more than she/cosmic muffin is fickle be- Savior or whatever for making the victory possible. I have never seen a coach or player blame God atall for losing. Just once I would love to hear a coach in a losing locker room look up when being asked by some sports broadcaster about what happened and have the coach curse a cruel God for his team’s ineptitude andultimate defeat. CIAO! Lutz family attorney » 561-0024 or toll free 1-877-561-9400 CE] otoof | We'll PayYou Superior Dividends (enaaf Deoanit im ary 6Months 24 Months 36 Months 48 Months 60 Months 5.15% 00% 6,10% 6.25% 6.50% These terms & 1 Lutz’ father, Elroy, was an engineer for Southern Pacific Rail- Once in a while he would get wp. § set at something, but he wasn't & uncontrolled. “When he got angry, he had a pretty good reason.” medication. She believes their father’s death was behind her brother's troubles. road. For entertainment,his childrenofien rode the train for free it took quite a bit to provokehim, ‘s5The HolidaySpa Sale Sabecuin for... Thefourth ofsix children, Lutz lived his entire life in Ogden, Roy and Taylor. For 20 years he worked at Hercules and Alliant Techsystems, a defense contractor that supplied crucial military componentsto the government. Co-workers say Lutz and his supervisors were constantly un- der pressure to meet deadlines. The work was exacting and often stressful. Parts produced at Alliant’s Clearfield factory where Lutz worked are used in rockets and on Trident submarines. Lutz was a supervisorin quality control. thousandths of an inch. We kind of acted as policemen, so sometimes there were a little bit of hard feelings between people, but Lutz didn’t seem to have a prob- Buy a Spat and receivea FREE POOL TABLE! lem. I think everybody really liked him,” rer “tnbedtssally, “SerSomna, chentriepepapeien, Don'tforget wehavea large Ges) 8 Ft Dining Tables Limited Supply Fi Seconds 42X60Table Includes 2-18" Leaves eae only recently began taking the SOLID OAK ' <Chalrs Extra) If You Can Pay “When they pulled him over and he wasn’t doing anythi ng wrong, if they started swearing at him like they did on the video, that would haveset him off,” she says. “He did have a temper, but could and carved out a ranchstyle homestead on the outskirts Thanksgiving Specials! 99.00 up to 15 vents Includes all vents brushed and vacuumed. Receive 30% off a furnace cleaning * 100%Satisfaction Guaranteed guess why heresisted. of Ogden. AIR DUCT CLEANING SPeCIAL 99.00 20 calers brother was an angel — he Would reconciled this time.” Tom Barberiis a talk show host on KALL910-AM. Dryer Vents » Furnace Cleaning * Chimney Sweeps * We guarantee all work wedo for 1 yea 4 * Senior Citizen Discount! Zz @. again. Chaplin does not say her Lutz was a quiet lavorer who married his high school sweetheart, went huntingas often as he character smears lodged by a “Like it’s OK to kill him if he ders, too.’ And he did. But never en “There was lotofclose tolerance work,” says Boyd Walker, Lutz’ former supervisor. “When put as muchspin on thatas possible. . . Like any couple, they had had arguments about that very ing to put him down when Glen going to carry him on my shoul. jg ways gone back and reconciled and [Laurie] believed they had carpenters talk about feet and inches, we were talking about made death threats,” DeLand says. “[Weber County]is trying to him on his shoulders and was go. said, ‘WhenI get a little boy, I'm thing [divorce]. But they had al- says recent reports about Lutz sheriff's office fearful ofcriticism. took him to Disneyland. Dad yt depression.” Lutz’ sister says her brother Loni DeLand was just little guy, my father fightif provoked. Butafterlisten. ing to a recording of the deputies # screaming pi ities 23 they hogtied Lutz, she says she can @ scription medication for anxiety. “[Weber County]is trying to put as much spin on that as possible... . Like any couple, they had had arguments about that very thing [divorce]. But they had always gone back and reconciled and [Laurie] believed they had reconciled this time.” then grabbed the deputy’s arm during an otherwiseroutinetraffic stop. Three deputies eventually subdued and hog-tied Lutz, who stopped breathing and slipped into a coma. 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But Glen especially. He wor- Teams throw the “bomb”or a tory of depression, according to the deputy’s report. She later de- whenhis father died three years ago, Lutz, then a 41-year-old father of two strapping boys, slipped into an emotional funk he could not seem to shake. “He was really close to my faolder sister. “All of us, all our Israeli conflict and the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. So here between the washed andthe unwashed, the clean and the unclean, the anointed and the unanointed — relax, Tom,it’s a Whena sister died 16 years ago Lutz seemed to drift further from the religion of his youth. And religious experience in the spiri- tual sense, but war. Just look at On the night her husband was rushed to the hospital, Laurie Lutz told a deputy he had a his- on a Mormon church mission, how the gameis played and the terminology used. aoe teow ee formerco-worker: “He was just 2 ure easy-going guy. I never saw Oo OFF Resulat Aoivission with this AD! aN a |