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Obama Hits Violence in Football: ‘If I Had a Son’ I’m Not Sure If I Would ‘Let Him Play’

Jan. 27, 2013 1:21pm

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Football’s first fan isn’t sure he’d let his son play the game, in light of the impact it takes on its players. It is the violence inherent in the sport that he explicitly targets as problematic and a potential barrier to allowing a son partake (pending he actually had one).

“I’m a big football fan, but I have to tell you, if I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football,” President Barack Obama tells The New Republic.

President Barack Obama Isnt Sure Hed Let a Son Play Football | Violence

President Barack Obama tries to wave away a fly buzzing around his head as he speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 (Photo Credit: AP)

“And I think that those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence,” Obama said. “In some cases, that may make it a little bit less exciting, but it will be a whole lot better for the players, and those of us who are fans maybe won’t have to examine our consciences quite as much.”

In an interview in the magazine’s Feb. 11 issue, Obama said he worries more about college players than he does about those in the NFL.

“The NFL players have a union, they’re grown men, they can make some of these decisions on their own, and most of them are well-compensated for the violence they do to their bodies,” Obama said. “You read some of these stories about college players who undergo some of these same problems with concussions and so forth and then have nothing to fall back on. That’s something that I’d like to see the NCAA think about.”

Read the entire interview here.

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Comments (223)

1 2 3 … 6
  • DocScience
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:55pm

    Should we laugh at this or cry?

    Report this comment

    DocScience  
  • sojournerspirit
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:54pm

    Im tired of these old mafia style tactics, from Obama to Rham, Please will the real Americans please wake up, To real Americans this Obama guy is the worst pres ever, Thank God that he does not have a son to carry on his stupidity, So why even mention anything about football, I believe obama studied the constitution in harvard just to distroy its very existence, We need a direct leading from GOD to get rid of this crap in our governments, or things are gonna get worse& worse until there’s a revolution.

    Report this comment

    sojournerspirit  
  • neverending
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:53pm

    OH a big boo hoo hoo – wants to send woman to combat and yet he probably wouldn’t let his son play football. The great and wonderful part of this story is HE has no son!!! Just thrilled to death we have such a hero, role model sitting in the whitehouse – NOT! Here little kitty, kitty – there is that oo harsh for you?

    Report this comment

    neverending  
    • kryptonite
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:55pm

      Hey, Barack, CLEARLY not having a son is starting to get to you. Obviously, you are keenly aware that you are a disgrace to your Muslim faith.

      I’m surprised you haven’t divorced Mooch. It’s what Muslim men do when a wife doesn’t “give” them a son (but the curse is all yours, half man). Unfortunately for you, you’re stuck with the Christian label, so no can do.

      Sucks to be you, Hussein. When you die, that beautiful Muslim name will not be passed on to the next generation. I’ll have to admit, Hussein, that’s a comforting thought.

      Report this comment

      kryptonite  
  • Uechi
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:52pm

    If Barry had a son he’d be traitorous pos like his commie father and too much of a pansy coward to try football.

    Report this comment

    Uechi  
  • gyro
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:51pm

    The come backs are so good I cant think of a better one?
    ok how about
    If obama did not have a damaged brain he wouldnt need biden to read for him
    na that sucks
    how about
    If obama had a son it would prove transexual men with no balls can be presedent
    ok that will bo
    :)

    Report this comment

    gyro  
  • banjarmon
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:49pm

    When is the Pope going to slap BHO up beside the head and make everybody CHEER!!!

    Report this comment

    banjarmon  
  • Tri-ox
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:49pm

    So gay.

    Report this comment

    Tri-ox  
  • Exidor
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:48pm

    Oh go hang some curtains in a community center you lightweight.

    Football…….JHC

    Report this comment

    Exidor  
  • DougHuffman
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:47pm

    If son is like father the coach prolly wouldn’t let the scrawny black punk play either. That’s what AA is for, to initiate an Affirmative Re-action. “Aww right youse guys, hit the track! I want twenty laps.” “Choom ganga dude. Manana.”

    Report this comment

    DougHuffman  
  • SIXFRIGATES
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:47pm

    IF you had a son Barack Obama, he’d be a spineless, weak, gutless *****.. just like you.

    Report this comment

    SIXFRIGATES  
  • barber2
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:47pm

    Did you play in your early years ??

    Report this comment

    barber2  
  • 13th Imam
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:43pm

    Stay home, hide in the closet, and drink your Jaegermeister, with a straw.

    Report this comment

    13th Imam  
  • RANGER1965
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:43pm

    sigh…..

    I hate it when I agree with Encinom.

    Report this comment

    RANGER1965  
  • barber2
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:42pm

    If Obama had had sons, the Democrats would never have chosen him to run.

    Report this comment

    barber2  
  • MDECKER
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:37pm

    If he had a son, if he had a daughter, if he had a next door neighbor, if he had…This guy’s life is all hypothetical. Try, if you were the Leader of the United States of America, what would you do?

    Report this comment

    MDECKER  
    • barber2
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:45pm

      He is ” compositing” as we write. Don’t you wish Mr. ” Fictional” Autobiography ( a new literary form ! ) had become a motivational speaker and spared us the mess of his inability to do rather than to say…

      Report this comment

      barber2  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:12pm

      This coming from THE president who has MORE drone kills than ANY OTHER President. He sits and watches these drone strikes. Don’t let him stand there and lie about not wanting to watch violence, he watches it All the time.

      Report this comment

      Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • Rowgue
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:37pm

    I wouldn’t encourage my son to play football either, at least not in an organized league where they use weapons…err helmets and pads I guess is what you’re supposed to call them. The problem is not the game though, it’s the people playing and coaching it. It’s become inundated with people that have no regard for the rules, nothing even remotely resembling sportsmanship, and no respect for other players as fellow human beings. Nothing about the game needs to be changed. You just have to start enforcing rules like they are actually rules and not polite suggestions.

    Report this comment

    Rowgue  
    • redfish52
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:49pm

      Lets see what the common denominator is here….Pro Union President, Unionized NFL and America wide union membership dropping. Also, thousands of innocent babies are legally killed every day and yet we are supposed to feel sympathy for brain damaged athletes who went into their profession without a gun to their head. And yet our own solders coming home from war with brain injuries have to fight for any scrap of help the government might throw them. Oh and they make less than minimum wage if you look at the hours they put in. Being in a lone outpost in Afghanistan is a 24/7 job which if you do the math the average solder there makes less than a dollar an hour. So in closing I could care less about overpriced, whinny football players getting banged up doing something they like doing and not being forced to do so.

      Report this comment

      redfish52  
    • gyro
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:53pm

      Rowgue = no logical posts allowed in this thread

      Report this comment

      gyro  
    • mercenary4freedom
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:33pm

      I have a son & he plays and is being recruited D1 right now. I played as well & we love the game. He & I both know the risks involved and are fine with those risks doing something we love.. I took my share of bumps and bruises but bounced right back everytime as does he. I also went military after football (another rough occupation) then finished up working in other dangerous parts of the world with private firms. There are some of us that don’t mind risks.

      If you ask me, I see a pattern here with odumbo & the dems. I think this is the beginning of attacking the universities budgets for football and other rough athletic programs. I also think they are trying to pacify americans into being soft. If left up to them, there would be no more rugged individualism, only what they think is suitable. GTF out odummy, You don’t know best!.

      The world is full of risks….as they say, Lifes a bit*h , then you die!

      Report this comment

      mercenary4freedom  
    • soybomb315_II
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:34pm

      exactly….i will discourage football as well for my son. Football has become nothing more than gladiators in a coliseum. They wreck their bodies every sunday.

      I am all for neighborhood football games where there are no pads and nobody is taking head shots. Also, flag football is good. If they put on foam helmets instead of hard shell helmets, the whole game would be better

      Report this comment

      soybomb315_II  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 4:27pm

      @MERC I played a lot of football growing up, just never in an organized league with all the BS equipment, and we knocked the crap out of each other.

      You know what though? There was never a single head to head collision, not one. And the only concussion that ever happened was the result of playing in the winter on an icy field where somebody fell backwards and hit their head on the ice. All levels of the sport are filled with cheap shot artists and head hunters these days.

      Report this comment

      Rowgue  
  • freeberty
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:36pm

    Booby Jindal blasting Paul Ryan, and calling the Republican Party the stupid party.
    Paul Ryan praising Hilliary Clinton for being a fiscal conservative, is he hoping to become her Vice Presidential candidate?.
    John McCain seems to be Obama’s biggest supporter on immigration reform.
    Yea, I guess with the republican party completely imploding and joining the democrats to completely dismantle America, The Blaze Has no choice but to run a story about Obama’s imaginary son.

    Report this comment

    freeberty  
    • S-O-B-E-R
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 4:25pm

      I was traveling today and met an elderly lady from Bay Ridge NY who started chatting. She just nonchalantly told a story of when, “who was that senator who spent time in a POW camp, McCain, right, I met him when he was campaigning for Bloomberg. He was very sociable. I met (McCain) again when he was campaigning for (Bloomberg) the second time. And the third time, he didn’t really campaign, he just made himself mayor.” So I cursorily verifed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg.

      Report this comment

      S-O-B-E-R  
  • burnteye86
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:36pm

    http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/08/06/the_end_of_football_fast_approaches

    Report this comment

    burnteye86  
  • RANGER1965
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:33pm

    I have to agree with the President on this one.

    Football can be a brutally hard sport, one that often permanently alters your life, not always for the better. I think a parent should think long and hard about whether his son should go into football, and it’s also true that college players as big and powerful as they are, take virtually the same risks as NFL players, but don’t have crap to fall back on if they become disabled.

    Report this comment

    RANGER1965  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:15pm

      Yes, but are we going to let HIM take that decision away from everyone else? We are free to make OUR OWN choices.

      Report this comment

      Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • RANGER1965
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:20pm

      I agree with you…and if he starts talking about the government stepping in I’ll be right with you on that.

      Report this comment

      RANGER1965  
    • Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 2:43pm

      I played soccer years ago and had a player hit me from the side, blowing out my knee. I now suffer from arthritis and need a knee replacement (after 3 surgeries over the years). So should the el presidente step in and regulate ALL sports? Why don’t we just wrap our children in a bubble so they never get hurt. The Govts. job is not to keep me safe in my daily life or make decisions for me. Their job is to keep a defense for the nation and let the people goevern their own lives through the states. If a parent doesn’t want their kid to play sports, fine, my accident happened in my late 20′s, it was my decision to play. And I will say playing all sports as I grew up helped shape me into the person I am today, it teaches you how to win and lose, how to play well with others, teamwork, pride, responsibility, and most important, drive to be a winner. No matter who you are, if you play sports, you learn to hate losing. But taking that away from today’s youths, it takes away the sense of winning and losing and gives them the “Equality” Obama is striving for, where everyone gets a trophy, no one gets more than the other person, and we all are equal.

      Report this comment

      Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra  
    • TH777
      Posted on January 27, 2013 at 3:31pm

      Whew, Thank God Ranger1965! You scared a few of us for a moment there.

      Report this comment

      TH777  
  • burnteye86
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:33pm

    Rush was right. Now the libs are coming after football.

    Report this comment

    burnteye86  
  • ThePostman
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:32pm

    If Obama had a son, he’d be a dead gang-banger in Florida.

    Report this comment

    ThePostman  
  • 13th Imam
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:32pm

    “Delicate Well Manicured Fingers” couldn’t play a real sport. His jock had nothing in it to keep it from falling to his bony ankles. He’s a pansy.

    Report this comment

    13th Imam  
  • TelepromoterNChief
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:28pm

    Man up soft hands.

    Report this comment

    TelepromoterNChief  
  • 1911CK
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:28pm

    Would this son look like Trayvon as well?

    Report this comment

    1911CK  
  • searching for the Truth
    Posted on January 27, 2013 at 1:25pm

    You Guy’s!

    Report this comment

    searching for the Truth  
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