We Can All Learn a Lesson From the Harvey Langi Escapade

I'm not going to take the time to rehash the whole Harvey Langi situation here. The chances are, that if you are reading this, you are familiar with the whole situation. In a nutshell, Harvey is an LDS football player who committed to the University of Utah before leaving on a 2 year mission. Then, right before he got home, word spread that he was reaching out to BYU with intentions of transferring.

As a Utah fan, I'm not happy about Harvey leaving. I think he's a good athlete that would have helped the team. However, as much as I favor Utah over BYU, I don't fault him for changing his mind. What I do blame Harvey for is how he handled the whole situation. The truth is, people change their minds. Employees quit jobs, couples break up, and kids even transfer schools. We've all felt strongly about something, made a decision, and then decided later it wasn't for us. Which is why we can't fault Harvey for having a change of heart. The decision could be one based on athletic factors or it could be spiritual, economic, or social. The truth is, we don't have all the facts.

But, what we do know is that Harvey went about it all the wrong way and that's a fact. If you are an employee considering a new job, you don't want local media breaking the information to your current employer that you've decided to leave. It tends to leave a foul taste in one's mouth. Or, if you're in a relationship, you don't want your significant other finding out from twitter that you were calling and texting a different cute guy or girl. That's not how you want those scenarios to play out. And yet, that's exactly how the whole Harvey escapade unraveled.

Rather than causing red and blue twitter fights and full-blown local media speculation, he could have avoided the whole circus and handled it quietly and professionally. That would have meant finishing his mission, heading up to the Utah football offices, and sitting down with Kyle Whittingham. Would it have meant having a hard conversation? Of course. Break-ups and 2 week notices aren't fun conversations either, but if you do them right, you can prevent burning bridges. Instead, Harvey managed to burn down every bridge leading in and out of Rice Eccles Stadium.

We can all learn a lesson from Harvey. The next time we change our minds after someone has taken a chance on us, whether that's an employer, a school, or a boyfriend/girlfriend, let's show that person nothing but utmost respect and appreciation. That doesn't mean they'll like our decision to leave for a different pasture. But it does mean they'll respect the way we went about doing it. And in life, that's important.

One of the original articles here. 

Note: Harvey's transfer isn't official but all the signs point to him transferring. Yesterday KSL posted this article.

And a tweet by Brian Swinney.