Larry Fedora was the talk of college football after the Tar Heels’ head football coach made some controversial remarks about CTE, his perceived attack on football and its effect on our country.
Larry Fedora: If football goes away “it would be the decline of our country.” pic.twitter.com/sNLCBA9yDm
— Carolina Blitz (@VashtiHurt) July 18, 2018
It’s important to remember one thing when digesting all of this; college football coaches are salesmen and to get to the level Fedora has reached you have a be a pretty good one. They have to sell recruits on choosing their program. They have to sell parents on entrusting them with the welfare and success of their kid. They have to sell players on their system.
What Larry did here was try to sell to the wrong group of people. None of us who have educated ourselves enough about the game of football have any question that playing it is directly linked to CTE. We’re also not naive enough to believe that football determines the greatness of this country or if Fedora’s perceived attack on the sport will lead to its decline.
Are Fedora’s comments out of touch? Yes. Are they a bit archaic? No question. But will they ultimately hurt him? No. Headlines like these in sports are fleeting and with training camps right around the corner we will move on to something else to talk about. But you know what will hurt Fedora far greater than this “Make Football Great Again” moment…another losing season. So let’s hope the sales pitch he makes to his players and coaching staff on the urgency of winning is better than what he tried to sell us.