The matchup between BYU and Arizona made countless headlines due to some questionable calls from the officiating crew, and fans reacted with some heightened aggression.
That aggression led to fans of the losing team, Arizona, chanting ‘F*** the Mormons’ while leaving the arena.
With the situation going viral on social media, many individuals called out Arizona for the situation, and made statements on what the chant truly does to the Mormon faith.
One such individual was BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who responded to an old clip of himself mentioning that disrespect toward Mormons has become way too socially acceptable.
“Crazy how an arena full of people think it’s okay to do this,” Retzlaff said, tagging the University of Arizona in his tweet. “Start the uproar. This can’t be normalized.”
Arizona Athletic Director Desireé Reed-Francois commented on the situation late on Saturday night, saying, “Following tonight’s men’s basketball game, it was brought to our attention that an unacceptable chant occurred. On behalf of the University of Arizona Athletic Department, we apologize to BYU, their student-athletes, coaches, and fans. The chant is not reflective of who we are and should not have happened.”
