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SALT LAKE CITY — As appealing as college football can be, bad news has been draining the fun for years. Allegations of sexual assault or news of tutors taking player exams can make swapping game tickets for the ballet seem reasonable.
Yet this week, in the unlikeliest of circumstances, football was tied to one of the most moving stories I’ve ever seen. It had nothing to do with touchdowns and everything to do with courage. But it’s not the kind of courage a player shows when fighting back from an injury. This is the purest kind, changing a tragic event into a transcendent experience.