CHARLOTTE, NC – Media days in college sports are generally lackluster affairs, with the league controlling the agenda, coaches saying what they’re supposed to say, and players doing the same. They are obligatory to the media, not so much for what IS said, but for what somebody MIGHT say.

UNC football coach Larry Fedora did not let the media down at today’s ACC kickoff meeting.

Fedora was chatting during a breakout session when a question about the new kickoff rules led into how football has changed, how coaches now teach it, the drills employed and the protocols used as it relates to head injuries and concussions since he’s been in coaching.

His initial answer went down a predictable path, talking about the days of the past where players were taught to lead with their head, and how that has changed. But then in the course of the conversation, Fedora went off the rails. He went from talking about how the research regarding concussions and CTE had changed the way the game is played and coached today, to likening it to being in a cultural war for the soul of the nation.

“Our game is under attack” Fedora said, changing the atmosphere of the media room from one of casual listening to “what did he just say?” He continued with “I fear that the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won’t recognize it 10 years from now. And if it does, our country will go down, too.”

At this point a sports information director – if he could – would have pretended to whisper into the coach’s ear as if he had some breaking news while saying “what on earth are you possibly thinking?” But that didn’t happen, so Fedora next linked the concerns and precautions being taken for head injuries to the decline of civilization in the United States.

“I think it would be the decline of our country,” Fedora said regarding football being changed or even one day shut down. “There’s no doubt in my mind. I think the lessons that you learn in the game of football relay to everything that’s going to happen in the rest of your life. And if we stop learning those lessons, we’re going to struggle. I think in some ways we’re struggling now more than we ever have. Are we ever going to be a perfect country? No. But I think the game of football has had a major impact on who we are as a country.”

I get that Fedora thinks that football is important in many people’s lives. Those of us who are older and played the game look back at that time fondly. But the dangers weren’t known then. And most who look back fondly managed to avoid serious injury that others weren’t so fortunate to do. Yet Fedora still marched on, even questioning if there was a connection between football and CTE.

“I don’t think that it’s been proven the game of football causes CTE, but that’s been put out there,” Fedora said. “We don’t really know yet. Are there chances for concussions in the game of football — yeah, we all have common sense, right? When you have two people running into each other there is a chance of a concussion. But the game is safer than it’s ever been in the history of the game.”

I suppose if you were trying to take the pressure off your program and any attention that might be being paid to the fact the Tar Heels were 3-9 last year, this would be a good way to do it. But a firestorm erupted soon afterward, prompting Fedora to come back and hold his own impromptu press conference with media members out in the hall way.

Did he walk back his comments? Soften his opinions? Nope. These were the comments he made, which were typed up and distributed to the media. ESPN’s David Hale posted them on Twitter:

• Does he believe CTE links to football? Fedora replied “I’m not sure that anything is proven that football, itself, causes CTE,” echoing exactly what he said earlier. “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.”
• How is the game under attack? “To me, it’s people twisting the data and the information out there to use for whatever their agenda is. Tweaking the game doesn’t mean it’s under attack. Any time you change the game for the betterment of the players, that’s a great thing. That’s not attacking the game, but it is changing it. I don’t have anybody specific, but if you look at what’s going on around the game of football, it’s constantly someone attacking the game, that the game isn’t safe, that the risk is too big. I think it’s about educating the players so they can make decisions on whether the game is worth it to them.”

I would call that doubling down on the earlier comments. About a dozen media members did too.

Fedora is now in the glare of the national sports media spotlight. Forbes called him a CTE truther. A quick scan of Twitter showed at least a half a dozen media outlets who ran stories ripping his comments, his doubling down on those comments, and his poor reflection on the University of North Carolina. USAToday’s Dan Wolken posted a column saying “If UNC’s Larry Fedora can’t acknowledge link between CTE and football, he’s too dumb to coach college football and should be fired immediately.”

So in a matter of minutes, Fedora turned the ACC Kickoff from ho-hum affair to the lead story on national sportscasts. In comparison, nobody now cares about the blocking, tackling, X’s and O’s, or any other football-related facet of the rest of the ACC teams. Fedora is the story.

A story, I’m afraid to say, that will end two ways: A contrite coach stands at a podium in front of a large media contingent and reads a prepared statement given to him by University officials…

…or Fedora isn’t coaching the Tar Heels when the 2018 season starts.