North Carolina's Fedora: If football changes too much, U.S. will decline
Football is the critical pillar keeping the United States of America upright - at least, according to North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora.
Fedora said Wednesday that potential health-related changes to the game could cause the country that created it to "go down, too."
"Our game is under attack ... I fear that the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won't recognize it 10 years from now," Fedora said, according to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic. "And if it does, our country will go down, too."
The head coach also attacked the credibility of the links between playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
"I don't think it's been proven that the game of football causes CTE," Fedora said. "We don't really know that. Are there chances for concussions? Of course. There are collisions. But the game is safer than it's ever been."
A senior NFL executive admitted in 2016 that football was unequivocally linked to CTE.
Fedora's press conference left some reporters confused.
UNC coach Larry Fedora says he once spoke with a general and asked him what makes the American military the best in the world.
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) July 18, 2018
The general’s answer, per Fedora, was simple: The United States is the only football-playing nation in the world. pic.twitter.com/eCRY40gIeD
Larry Fedora’s media session is over. He repeatedly doubled down on his claims about the decline of football/decline of America and added later that he doesn’t believe CTE has been proven to be linked to football. That was a surreal Q&A session.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 18, 2018