To the Editor:
I always have been proud of my state university — UNC — its educational prowess, renowned graduates and classy athletic teams (e.g., Dean Smith). Then came the legislature’s assaults on liberal arts education — and now, Larry Fedora.
First, coach-turned-scientist Fedora denied scientific or medical causation between football violence and brain injury — C.T.E. Maybe Coach learned this at Austin College, but I don’t find any articles by him remotely related to science or medicine. In today’s environment that is acceptable: if one doesn’t like the science, just say it’s wrong. If science adversely affects your politics or economics, it’s fake. Kill those regulations that promote safety, health or the environment — they are inconvenient to bank accounts.
Second, I had no idea that football was vital to the existence of our republic as Coach claims. Thank goodness our founding fathers could take the time away from football to pen the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I guess Coach would argue that it was football — not Locke, Hobbs, Rousseau or Aristotle — that inspired the early patriots to break away from the mother country and write these foundational documents. It was pigskins, not philosophy, which gave us this great political experiment.
So, let a few more other people’s sons entertain us and take the hits. We cannot let devastating injuries curtail our ravenous pursuit of athletic entertainment. Don’t change the game — deny the science.
I am hoping that Coach will favor us with more of his knowledge and tell us what positions the founding fathers played. Was Washington the Colonials’ QB? Jefferson a TE? Adams a slot back? And Franklin an OL?
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James T. Crouse
Raleigh, N.C.
