JCOM 2300: Max Hall What was he thinking?

Those of you who follow BYU or Utah football closely already know this story. After the BYU football game against Utah on Saturday Max Hall, BYU's senior quarterback made his feelings known about the Utah football team, their fans, and the school itself. Here is just a bit of what he said. 

"I think the whole university, their fans, and their organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don't respect them, and they deserve to lose."

Pretty strong words. The next day Hall came out and apologized to the Utah's football team and university itself saying that the comments were directed more at the fans who mistreated his family. This is what I don't get. Why? You don't know who mistreated your family but you do know that it wasn't any of the Utah football players or the entire University of Utah. Why would you say anything like that? You can find the people who wronged you. You can't changed what happened. Obviously you need to consider what the ramifications will be in the future for things like this being said. As a result of Hall's comments, there will be more comments, more fighting, and sadly more and more beer throwing. 

From a PR perspective the best thing BYU can do is strongly discipline Hall or any of their athletes that say similar stupid things. The only way BYU can send the message that comments like Hall's do not represent the University is to suspend players for misplaced comments. In the end people will forget that Max Hall called the U classless but they will remember that a BYU player did and and the negative image will all fall on BYU.