Catch up with the latest stories in Cougar Nation.
BYU Football Players named to National Watch Lists
Harvey Langi is the latest BYU Cougar to have been added to a preseason watch list for the 2016 football season. Langi was named to the Butkus Award watch list which recognizes the best college linebacker in the nation. Langi is among 50 other athletes considered for the award.
Other Cougars who have been added to watch lists are Jonny Linehan for the Ray Guy award – recognizing the Nation’s best punter, Travis Tuiloma and Ului Lapuaho for the Outland Trophy award – recognizing the nation’s most outstanding interior lineman, and Taysom Hill to the Maxwell Award – recognizing the nation’s best player.
BYU Basketball hits the recruiting front
The Cougar Cagers staff has been busy this week, extending offers to three athletes: Kolby Lee, 4-star, 6’9″ Center from the Class of 2017 out of Rocky Mountain HS in Idaho, Branden Carlson, 4-star, 6’11” Center from the Class of 2017 out of Bingham HS in Utah, and Colby Leifson, unrated, 6’4″ Shooting Guard from the Class of 2016, but would join with the 2018 signing class following his LDS mission, Leifson is out of North Gwinnet High in Georgia.
Former BYU QB Max Hall mentors young athletes on addiction
Former BYU QB Max Hall was in Utah this past weekend working with Quarterback Elite, helping to train high school athletes for the upcoming season.
The two day camp included a classroom session where the camp counselors gave life advice in addition to football instruction, Max Hall used this to educate the young athletes on the dangers of drug addiction.
In an interview with KSL TV, he shared his story:
“Yeah, it was embarrassing, and yeah people will judge me for it. But that’s OK,” Hall told KSL Sports in a one-on-one interview following a session with QB Elite in Sandy. “I want to use my story to help others who are going through the same thing.
“It can happen to anybody. Addiction doesn’t care who you are or what you do. But there is help available. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; just take that first step.”
“There’s a big problem with addiction in Utah. I know there are a lot of drugs here, and a lot of stuff going on here,” Hall said. “In the Mormon culture, it can be a hard thing to go through and to come out with. But there are lots of people out there who understand.”
He shared how injuries during his brief stint with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals started him down the path of addiction.
“I remember I got hit on the goal line, and Larry (Fitzgerald) was carrying me off the field. But I stayed in, and we won,” Hall said. “Man, it was fun — in front of a home crowd to beat the Saints. The mistake I made was continuing to play the next few games. In the next week, I suffered another concussion against Seattle.
“Looking back on it, that was a huge mistake.”
Hall suffered a shoulder injury later that season, a turn that eventually ended his NFL career. It also amped up his addiction to opiates.
“Having access to pain medication was a slippery slope to start going down,” Hall said. “Really, it ended my NFL career.
“It’s not an excuse, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind with the concussions. Having the (shoulder) injury was hard on me. I dealt with the hurt and the pain in the wrong way — I masked it with painkillers instead of getting treatment and getting back on my feet.”
Hall took stronger and stronger pain-killing medication — think OxyContin — until they progressed into stronger, more addictive substances and alcohol.
“You have physical withdrawal from it,” he said. “After you have been using it for a while, and you try to stop, you just want to get more. It becomes more and more, and then you are introduced to the wrong people and other substances.
