ESPN: UNC's Larry Fedora says the game of football is 'under attack'

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per ESPN:

North Carolina coach Larry Fedora drew heat for doubting a link between football and CTE at Wednesday's ACC Kickoff event, saying he believed there were people using the data in hopes of destroying the game.

Fedora was asked about changes to the kickoff rule in college football, and he offered an extended oratory disputing the relationship between football and CTE and suggested that softening the game could be part of a larger concern.

"Our game is under attack," Fedora told reporters. "I fear the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won't recognize it in 10 years. And if it does, our country will go down, too."

Fedora said he had talked to military personnel who had suggested the success of the U.S. military was due, in part, to the number of football players who went on to join the armed forces.

Fedora also questioned the evidence tying CTE and football, later backtracking slightly by saying football simply was not alone in dealing with head injuries, and arguing that the game is currently safer than ever before.

"I'm not sure that anything is proven that football, itself, causes [CTE]," Fedora said. "My understanding is repeated blows to the head cause it, so I'm assuming that every sport, football included, could be a problem with that if you've got any kind of contact. That doesn't diminish the fact that the game is still safer than it's ever been because we continue to tweak the game to try to make it safer for our players."

Fedora said people -- he declined to say specifically who -- routinely used data on CTE to suggest the risk of playing football was too high. In turn, he said, participation rates in youth football have declined nationally, putting the game at risk.

"If you're involved in the game of football, you have to worry about that," Fedora said.

http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...th-carolina-larry-fedora-says-football-attack

Go Gophers!!
 

I'm glad he's not our coach.
 

Everything changes.

Nothing stays the same.

Also denying CTE in the long run will probabbly be a bad look...

I look forward to the new game of Blernsball!
 

He is most definitely correct about the game of football being under attack.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about the "our country will go down" part and assume he was joking or speaking tongue-in-cheek. If that part was sincere, it's insanely idiotic.
 

It's definitely under attack. Of course there's a nucleus of truth in the matter of CTEs. But CTEs are a veneer to disguising the real motive for its attack: its radical attackers are motivated by an attack on masculinity and its various expressions - including football. There is a cause at work here that has interests that extend far past football and CTEs. That's all I'll say on the matter.
 


dpodoll68 said:
He is most definitely correct about the game of football being under attack.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about the "our country will go down" part and assume he was joking or speaking tongue-in-cheek. If that part was sincere, it's insanely idiotic.
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Definitely hyperbolic but nothing around this issue seems to be fact-based or reasonable. The parents assuming Hilinski committed suicide due to CTE rather than the far more likely underlying and pre-ordained psychiatric issues is one example.

CTE exists but still waiting on some epidemiological numbers to show that is anything but vanishingly rare in high school and college players. Someone?
 

touchdownvikings said:
It's definitely under attack. Of course there's a nucleus of truth in the matter of CTEs. But CTEs are a veneer to disguising the real motive for its attack: its radical attackers are motivated by an attack on masculinity and its various expressions - including football. There is a cause at work here that has interests that extend far past football and CTEs. That's all I'll say on the matter.
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That is one of the strangest “black helicopter” conspiracy theories that I have ever heard. Face the truth, of the sports that can subject players to repetitive head injuries, football stands out. Butting a ball with your head or getting checked into the boards doesn’t install the same fear into a parents eyes as running at full speed and then putting you head down into a pile of players or tackling players at full impact with your head. It is also humorous to hear some people describe football as the only sport that can teach toughness or teamwork.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

alchemy2u said:
That is one of the strangest “black helicopter” conspiracy theories that I have ever heard. Face the truth, of the sports that can subject players to repetitive head injuries, football stands out. Butting a ball with your head or getting checked into the boards doesn’t install the same fear into a parents eyes as running at full speed and then putting you head down into a pile of players or tackling players at full impact with your head. It is also humorous to hear some people describe football as the only sport that can teach toughness or teamwork.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Why are you here, then? Serious question.
 

touchdownvikings said:
It's definitely under attack. Of course there's a nucleus of truth in the matter of CTEs. But CTEs are a veneer to disguising the real motive for its attack: its radical attackers are motivated by an attack on masculinity and its various expressions - including football. There is a cause at work here that has interests that extend far past football and CTEs. That's all I'll say on the matter.
Click to expand...


not sure if serious...
 






I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the wrrr my country gone type of comments. We all say dumb **** sometimes when were passionate about a certain issue, but he is right about football being under attack and being an easy target. The two worse concussions I got we're in baseball, not hockey or football. Also surprised soccer doesn't come under the gun more with all the headers and collisions with 50/50 balls.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 



If brain trauma is supposed to be "part of the game", then I'm glad that part of it is under attack.

Wouldn't care one bit of kickoffs were completely eliminated. Also wouldn't care if punts returns were eliminated (could only fair-catch or let the ball roll wherever it is going to roll). And wouldn't care if field goal attempts were made non-contact plays as well.

Never been a big fan of special teams having a big impact on the outcome of the game. Like regular plays better.


*That's my opinion, only* Not worth anything. And I'm sure I'm pretty far in the extreme ...
 

..."Our game is under attack," Fedora told reporters. "I fear the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won't recognize it in 10 years. And if it does, our country will go down, too."
...

I really don't think it would.
 

Ironic that a coach railing against the supposed hysteria of head trauma in football goes on to make one of the most hysterical comments I've ever heard about football's supposed importance to American society. The country will go down? Good lord.

Guess hysteria is all in the eyes of the beholder.
 

Hysteria...it’s going around. Outrageous, egregious, preposterous.
 


When you are coming off a 3-9 season you have to do something to draw attention away from your record on the field.
 




MrC said:
“The science isn’t settled.” That is why we should all tell our children to keep an open mind about smoking. And shooting heroin. And eating raw sewage.
Click to expand...

Another professor.
 

It doesn't take a professor or a scientist to argue that more than zero blows to the head is probably worse than zero blows to the head.


I do have sympathy for those who genuinely worry that football might not survive, at all. I do want the game to survive, of course. But I don't see removing the head from the game as resulting in people not wanting to play it or watch it anymore.

Right? Who watches a football game and says "wow, that guy got hit in the head, really hard! what an awesome play!!" No one ever says that ...
 

Gophers_4life said:
It doesn't take a professor or a scientist to argue that more than zero blows to the head is probably worse than zero blows to the head.


I do have sympathy for those who genuinely worry that football might not survive, at all. I do want the game to survive, of course. But I don't see removing the head from the game as resulting in people not wanting to play it or watch it anymore.

Right? Who watches a football game and says "wow, that guy got hit in the head, really hard! what an awesome play!!" No one ever says that ...
Click to expand...

The smoking analogies...Everyone knows radiation is bad for health. In fact, there’s about a 1% chance you’ll die of cancer from exposure to radon, cosmic rays, ultraviolet. This is before adding in cumulative exposure from medical imaging. Nobody walks around in a radiation suit. When was the last time your home, apartment was checked for radon levels? Dose matters.

When millions upon millions of men have played the sport of football, there are somewhere around 100-200 known cases of clinical CTE, ie manifesting as symptoms, NFL players have longer lifespans and lower suicide rates than the general public, I’d argue the problem seems to be overblown. Football is not close to analogous to smoking where 15-20 percent develop long cancer, or die 10 years earlier on average from a myriad of other health issues. Not even close. Even amongst smokers dose and duration of exposure matters.

It will probably turn out to be a combination of duration of exposure and genetic susceptibility when the real science starts rolling in down the road. Enough of the sky is falling madness.
 


Combination of improved technology (helmets) and rule changes will keep football in fine shape. I do worry about the latter, though. I don’t want the game to become flag football, and particularly don’t like the trend toward more offense. I fear we are going to see more and more B12 like games of 60-50, because the rules changes seem to typically favor offense and the passing game. You wonder if at some point the players will wear sensors and hits over a certain measure not allowed.
 

Guys like Fedora are the problem

BleedGopher said:
per ESPN:

North Carolina coach Larry Fedora drew heat for doubting a link between football and CTE at Wednesday's ACC Kickoff event, saying he believed there were people using the data in hopes of destroying the game.

Fedora was asked about changes to the kickoff rule in college football, and he offered an extended oratory disputing the relationship between football and CTE and suggested that softening the game could be part of a larger concern.

"Our game is under attack," Fedora told reporters. "I fear the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won't recognize it in 10 years. And if it does, our country will go down, too."

Fedora said he had talked to military personnel who had suggested the success of the U.S. military was due, in part, to the number of football players who went on to join the armed forces.

Fedora also questioned the evidence tying CTE and football, later backtracking slightly by saying football simply was not alone in dealing with head injuries, and arguing that the game is currently safer than ever before.

"I'm not sure that anything is proven that football, itself, causes [CTE]," Fedora said. "My understanding is repeated blows to the head cause it, so I'm assuming that every sport, football included, could be a problem with that if you've got any kind of contact. That doesn't diminish the fact that the game is still safer than it's ever been because we continue to tweak the game to try to make it safer for our players."

Fedora said people -- he declined to say specifically who -- routinely used data on CTE to suggest the risk of playing football was too high. In turn, he said, participation rates in youth football have declined nationally, putting the game at risk.

"If you're involved in the game of football, you have to worry about that," Fedora said.

http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...th-carolina-larry-fedora-says-football-attack

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...


I began playing high school football in 1968. We were never taught to lead with our head but I knew teams that were. When I coached youth football in the early 90's we never taught kids to lead with their head but knew of teams that did. It is still a problem today because of coaches like this guy. The game is 'under attack' because of guys like him. Coaches like Fedora need to fined or fired if their players use their heads as a weapon.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
It will probably turn out to be a combination of duration of exposure and genetic susceptibility when the real science starts rolling in down the road. Enough of the sky is falling madness.
Click to expand...

I'm only with you to the extant that I want tackle football to survive, and more importantly, I want participation numbers to stay high. And so, I think mothers pulling their sons out of the game is troublesome.

However, if you're arguing that nothing at all needs to be done to lessen blows to the head, then I'm not with you. They add nothing to game itself, and can only possibly be a potential harm for players (even if the science isn't ready yet). Likewise, even if science couldn't prove that it causes any disease, you wouldn't have your son smoke a pack before each practice and game. Adds nothing, and can only possibly be a potential harm.
 

MrC said:
Nothing is as powerfully convincing as an ad hominem.
Click to expand...

Your argument was...brilliant. Yes, it’s just like shooting heroin, or smoking, or eating raw sewage. Keep the excellent arguments coming.
 

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