North Carolina's Fedora: If football changes too much, U.S. will decline

Football is the critical pillar keeping the United States of America upright - at least, according to North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora.

Fedora said Wednesday that potential health-related changes to the game could cause the country that created it to "go down, too."

"Our game is under attack ... I fear that the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won't recognize it 10 years from now," Fedora said, according to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic. "And if it does, our country will go down, too."

The head coach also attacked the credibility of the links between playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

"I don't think it's been proven that the game of football causes CTE," Fedora said. "We don't really know that. Are there chances for concussions? Of course. There are collisions. But the game is safer than it's ever been."

A senior NFL executive admitted in 2016 that football was unequivocally linked to CTE.

Fedora's press conference left some reporters confused.