Larry Fedora, the War on Football, and Every Argument You've Ever Had With a Conservative

[Algernon Moncrieff]

This is going to seem like a post on sports. And it is. but it isn't.

For those who don't know, Larry Fedora is the Head Football Coach at the University of North Carolina.

Full disclosure: I like football.

UNC coach Larry Fedora says football is 'under attack' is an article that was published in the Chicago Tribune. The content in the article has been published elsewhere, tweeted, and discussed in on talk radio (Will Cain talked about it on ESPN Radio today).

Let's start with this Tweet from Matt Fortuna:

Link to tweet

At ACC media today, Fedora credited America's military excellence -- not with the training of our troops or the billions we've spent on equipment -- but football. We are great -- not simply because we play football, but because we don't play soccer.

...OK - he didn't quite say that -- but he implied it. Full disclosure - the World Cup annoyed the Hell out of me.... once Denmark and Iceland were gone.

"I don't think that the game of football, that it's been proven that the game of football causes CTE," Fedora said. "But that's been put out there. We don't really know yet.

So here is where this becomes the start of every argument you ever have with a conservative. It isn't proven. There's no proof Russian meddling cost Hillary the election. There's no proof rising CO2 causes global warming. Hell - the causal link between tobacco and cancer is tenuous at best. Next you'll say drinking causes liver disease.

Step 2

No, no, that's not what I meant," Fedora said. "How's the game under attack? To me, it's more about people twisting the data and the information out there to use for whatever their agenda is.

It's the answer to everything over in conservativeland. Present numbers on gun deaths, and you know what you'll hear next - "you can make numbers say anything you want." Hopefully these people aren't in professions where the accuracy of statistics means something, like oddsmaking or actuarial science. When CNN reports CTE found in 99% of studied brains from deceased NFL players, to hear Fedora tell it, the statistic is twisted, or CNN has "an agenda."

To be fair, Fedora stated that, "Any time you're changing the game for the betterment for the health and safety of the players, you're doing a great thing." I think we would all agree on that. But then he goes on to his great leap:

"Oh yes, I fear that the game will get pushed so far to one extreme that you won't recognize the game 10 years from now," Fedora said. "That's what I worry about. And I do believe if it gets to that point, that our country goes down, too."

If football goes..our country goes. Forget Putin. Forget nationalism.Forget kids in cages. it's football. And the implication is that if football goes down, then America becomes a nation of....well I can't write what most conservatives would say to complete that sentence. America will become soft (that seems safe). Like those soccer-playing surrender monkeys, the French - America will go down if we keep changing his beloved game. This is the other endlessly tiresome conservative argument - we are lost as a nation because we don't all love going camping and hunting. You've never seen the wonder in a child's eyes like the wonder of the first time s/he field dresses a deer and then buries the gut pile.

Alex Kirshner on SB Nation wrote:

The general Fedora talks about here isn’t the only person who thinks football ties into military dominance. Structurally, this sport lends itself to warfare comparisons:

Football gets likened to war because it’s a territorial struggle. Football plays are the distribution of players across open space. When you think of it like that, it makes sense. If you’re going to conquer the space — a football field — you should understand its constraints.

And America’s got an ongoing cultural tendency to attach football to war in all kinds of subliminal ways. We do this when we talk about “ground attacks” and “battles” and “flankers,” and even when we talk about teams getting the “territorial advantage.”

...

He [Fedora] ticked off a few things North Carolina’s done to promote player health, like monitoring head impact with helmet technology and having a concussions expert on hand.

“Again, I’m gonna say the game is safer than it’s ever been in the history of the game, but we will still continue to tweak the game as we go,” Fedora said.

It wasn’t clear if he thought those tweaks would bring about the end of American society as we know it.

What I never saw addressed was what happens if there are changes to the game and players kneel for the Star Spangled Banner?