North Carolina coach Larry Fedora is wrong about CTE, so wrong that his comments about it on Wednesday will do far more damage than good.
Fedora drew widespread criticism for his tone-deaf statements about the condition at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, N.C. That's the most important aspect of this trending topic, even if it gets lost in the debate Fedora sparked over the political undertones of college football.
Fedora likely won't receive many thank-yous from the remaining coaches on the media day circuit who will now have to tiptoe around the sport's biggest problem.
MORE: SN Preseason All-Americans
"I'm not sure that anything is proven that football itself causes (CTE)," Fedora said, via ESPN. "My understanding is (that) 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."
Fedora's words were inappropriate. Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski, who committed suicide in January at age 21, was diagnosed with CTE. They were irresponsible, especially as they relate to parents of recruits working through the lower levels of football. They were ill-conceived, given the power Fedora holds over dozens of 18-to-22-year-olds.
They were wrong. Period.
CTE is now the No. 1 discussion topic for every parent whose child wants to play football, or at least it should be. More research might be needed, but at minimum it is a risk factor considering the number of brain-related injuries suffered by former football players. It threatens the long-term health of America's most popular sport — and, yes, football is still the most popular sport in the United States.
Instead of embracing that discussion, which is complicated, Fedora doubled down on the defensive.
"Our game is under attack," he said. "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."
ACC PREDICTIONS: Conference picks, sleepers and more
At that point, all of the important discussions about CTE were replaced by yet another divisive argument in which the two sides engage more in name-calling than in an educated back-and-forth about how to limit head injuries in football.
Fedora used the United States military to emphasize his point. He told a story about an unnamed general who told him the U.S. armed forces are the best in the world because the U.S. is the world's only football-playing nation.
There is so much to unpack here.
Fedora's story about the general is easily exploitable, to the point that politicians and pundits on CNN and Fox News will spin it in two different directions. It's almost always best to avoid war analogies when talking football. Sports journalists are urged to stay away from terms such as "bomb," "missile" and "battle." Coaches should be held to that standard, too. Regardless, all of this pushes the CTE discussion down a notch.
Football is not under attack, but a segment of outspoken critics won't touch the sport because of CTE. The problems don't stop at CTE, of course, and aren't limited to college football. The NFL is dealing with its own subset of issues related to player protests during the national anthem the past two years. Still, CTE should lead the discussions at both levels, and research about the condition must continue.
Football is not going away. You can try to put a timetable on its demise ("Football won't be here in 25 years/35 years/50 years") but we'll believe it when we see it.
Football teaches lessons about discipline and teamwork, principles that are essential to the success of a group. If any comparisons with the military are to be drawn, it's that the academy football teams are shining examples of all that is right with the sport. Countless student-athletes go on to have successful careers in fields other than football.
Football isn't just a good sport; it's a great sport. The excitement for the upcoming season in the summer is unrivaled. The game is embedded into cities and towns of all sizes across the United States. It is, simply, a large part of who we are.
Anybody who has played the sport at any level knows there's a lot of good in the game. I played football through high school, and I would do it again tomorrow. My son wants to play football, too. That's a debate in my house.
The questions about CTE are still there, though, and they've become much more complicated. Parents are asking them at cookouts and in living rooms: Would you let your kid play football if it really is hazardous to their mental health? When should you let your kid play football? How can we better treat football players who have suffered multiple concussions?
Those questions require more than macho puff-out-your-chest responses and pontifications on how great football made America. By the time Fedora made a logical point Wednesday, it was far too late.
"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," he said.
That's where the focus needs to be.
Fedora's other comments, regardless of context, are dangerous. They were neither thoughtful nor productive, and they will provoke too much anger when the truth is somewhere in between.
Football may not be going away, but neither is CTE. If the game is to survive, then the discussions about the two need to be productive at every level.
It's time to do more good than harm.
