President Obama Calls Football Unsafe, Asks For Safety Changes

President Barack Obama over the weekend proclaimed that football is too dangerous and, if he had a son, he would think long and hard about allowing him to play the sport.

Speaking to The New Republic, President Obama said fans may have to accept in the future that the game could become less exciting in order to make football safer.

While Obama said the game could become “a bit less exciting,” it would ultimately be safer for players.

Obama says of football fans’ expectations:

“And those of us who are fans maybe won’t have to examine our consciences quite as much.”

President Obama says he is most worried about college football players who do not have the union backing of NFL players when it comes to demanding better protections.

Speaking of NFL players, President Obama reveals:

“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. 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.”

The full interview with President Obama will appears in the February 11 issue of The New Republic.

Safety in the NFL has become a major point of contention over the last several years. Hundreds of NFL players have filed lawsuits against the NFL, claiming that the league hid the true dangers of repeated brain injuries.

The NFL safety issue came under more fire last week when the family of Junior Seau filed a lawsuit against the league. Seau killed himself last year and an autopsy to his brain revealed major damage caused by years of repetitive brain damage from his playing days.

[Image via spirit of america / Shutterstock.com]