sirnack

July 18th, 2018 at 10:17 PM ^

I know football coaches might exaggerate the importance of football, but saying it's responsible for the military might of the United States is more than a bit much.

Don

July 18th, 2018 at 10:19 PM ^

It's well known that Genghis Khan's armies played American tackle football when they weren't raping and pillaging. The only real difference is that instead of leather footballs they used decapitated noggins of their captives.

Genghis was originally an enthusiastic proponent of the triple option, but over the years transitioned to a run-oriented spread attack.

LeCheezus

July 18th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^

When I saw this on ESPN all I could think of was the "Potential Midseason Firing" thread from a few days back.  I'd be doubling down on Fedora as the prime candidate, for on season performance and comments that are getting into Bizzaro Jim McElwain territory.

AnthonyThomas

July 18th, 2018 at 11:49 PM ^

Larry Fedora's gonna get fired and then he's gonna run for a seat in the House. His signature move will be denying that lynchings ever happened in the South.

Clarence Beeks

July 19th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^

Or a comparison to other sports or non-athletes or to a representative sample of just football players in general.  If we're going to be really intellectual honest about the topic of CTE in football it really should be noted that all of the studies most accurately would be called "a study of football players who have died, who before they died exhibited signs that might be indicative of CTE so we looked at those but didn't look at any who didn't exhibit pre-death signs of CTE and so didn't include those non-occurrences within our study".

maizenbluenc

July 19th, 2018 at 8:02 AM ^

Well, while they are at it they need to study all sports, not just one poster child scapegoat sport. It amazes me how much angst there is for concussions in American football, when the recent World Cup coverage reminds me that two players in rest-of-world football who knock un-helmeted heads are dubiously looked at on the field, dusted off and sent on to play as a matter of routine.

stephenrjking

July 19th, 2018 at 2:01 AM ^

I don't know if these comments actually have any correlation to the likelihood that he is the first head coach fired mid-season, as discussed in a recent thread.

But I sure feel better about picking him to be first up to the guillotine.

1VaBlue1

July 19th, 2018 at 7:24 AM ^

I missed the mid-season firing thread, and now I has a sad...

That story is why I've all but stopped 'reading' CNN/SI (and some other 'news' outlets) - it's nothing but a crap load of twitter links with a rehash between to introduce them.  Write something so I can read it, please.  Twitter videos posted as 'journalism' are complete bullshit.

As for Fedora, what an asshat!  I don't think CTE is caused by football, but the game certainly amps up the disease and kicks it into overdrive.  To say it doesn't is to say that smoking doesn't have an effect on cancer.   

But, to be honest, I believe some general did say that football helps the military in some ways.  It teaches a lot of the same principles the military relies on - teamwork, structured reaction, strategy, etc...  But making the leap that military might is because of football is completely missing the mark of whatever this general officer might have said, and it amounts to nothing more than grandstanding and flag waving to get people to pay attention to him.  So I'm going to stop paying attention to Larry (again) until he's fired midway through the season...

Aspyr

July 19th, 2018 at 8:36 AM ^

Can I change my first coach to get fired from David Beaty to Larry Fedora?

Also, wonder if he will walk back the comments today

bacon1431

July 19th, 2018 at 8:46 AM ^

This man has some issues. And it's unfortunate that someone with such a small grasp of reality is supposed to be influencing young men. 

Magnus

July 19th, 2018 at 8:50 AM ^

On a slightly different note, I have heard military recruiters discussing a lack of participation in high school sports (particularly football) has been hurting the military's recruiting numbers. If kids aren't playing sports in high school, they're either not in shape or not mentally prepared for the rigors of the military.

stephenrjking

July 19th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^

Spitballing here, but it could be that the thing about football in our country is that it both has large roster sizes and attracts people across a wider range of body types and socio-economic / family backgrounds. Basketball has a much tighter cap on how many people can play it; sports like soccer and tennis tend to be populated by athletes with the kind of socio-economic profile that makes them more inclined to go to college.

Football by nature needs lots of people, including guys who might not have the skills to step right into a different sport and make the team. A geeky guy who's a bit pudgy and gets Bs and Cs in class can still go out for football and get into shape and learn to play guard. A kid with a rough family situation and some athleticism but no real skills can find discipline and some guidance playing LB or TE. And those guys may find at the end of high school that the military is both available and attractive.

bacon1431

July 19th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^

Think the recruiters probably need to adjust their recruitment strategies if that's the case. I would imagine they target athletes because athletes are used to some form of structure. Easy pickings for a military recruiter. 

Military demographics have been changing for a while. There's about 7 million less military personnel than there was 30 years ago. It's been getting older for a while. Average age is up 2 whole years since the 70s. Military probably just hasn't adjusted their recruiting strategies much over the years. Plus we had a fairly unpopular war the last 15sh years, so that might have something to do with it as well. I would imagine military participation decreased after Vietnam as well. 

LSAClassOf2000

July 19th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^

You know, he's not the first person to either construct or rehash some sort of "football / might of the USA" analogy, but every time someone does this, admittedly my eyes tend to roll because to me the actual strength is in being able to comfortably produce the amount of reality TV that we do in the vain hope that the world will somehow believe it is real. That's fortitude.

OwenGoBlue

July 19th, 2018 at 11:33 AM ^

Bo gave a speech at Michigan's football camp in '02 or '03 that was basically "it is good you play football. Football will prepare you for WWIII."

We still gave him a standing O because Bo but there were a few eyebrows raised as we looked around at each other.

mackbru

July 19th, 2018 at 4:19 PM ^

 Federa’s idiotic ‘Murka claptrap clearly taps into a wider brand of “thought” in this country. It’s amazing how many people buy this horseshit.