North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora answers a question during a news conference at the Atlantic Coast Conference college football media day in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday. Fedora said the game of football is under attack and that he doesn't believe it's been proven that football causes the degenerative brain disease CTE.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said Wednesday he doesn’t believe it’s been proven that football causes the degenerative brain disease CTE and offered a passionate defense of a sport he believes is “under attack.”

Fedora, during interviews at Atlantic Coast Conference preseason media days, described the sport as an integral part of American culture and said it is “safer right now than it’s ever been,” though he acknowledged the risk of concussions in a sport featuring constant collisions.

It wasn’t clear who Fedora was referring to in saying the game was under attack, with the seventh-year Tar Heels coach noting, for example, “it’s more about people twisting data” to argue football is unsafe. He also said players should be educated on the risks of the game.

“I don’t think that the game of football, that it’s been proven that the game of football causes CTE,” Fedora said. “But that’s been put out there. We don’t really know yet.

“Are there the chances for concussions in the game of football? Yeah, we all have common sense, right? Yeah, there are. When you have two people running into each other or multiple people running into each other, there is a chance of a concussion. But again, I’m going to say, the game is safer than it’s ever been in the history of the game.”

Known to cause violent moods, depression, dementia and other cognitive difficulties, CTE has been linked to the repeated hits to the head endured by football and hockey players, boxers and members of the military. The NFL’s billion-dollar concussion settlement included payouts for a qualifying diagnosis of CTE.

North Carolina is home to a noted center researching sports-related brain injuries and Fedora’s comments caused a stir at the ACC event, which opened two days of sessions with the league’s seven Coastal Division teams. He returned nearly two hours later to speak with a handful of reporters.

“I’m not sure that anything is proven that football itself causes it,” he said. “Now we do know from what my understanding is that repeated blows to the head cause it. So I’m assuming that every sport that you have, football included, could be a problem with that, right?”