President Obama shares his views on concussions in NFL - NFL News
The President of the United States of America Barack Obama has his hands full with problems both at home and abroad but he finds the time to keep up with developments in the National Football League (NFL) and shared his views in an interview on Thursday.
The President touched on a wide range of topics from his favourite sport of Basketball and the NBA while also touching on news doing the rounds in the NFL.
Talking to Bill Simmons in a 25-minute podcast, the President said that players in the NFL put their body through a lot of risks and the resulting health problems from concussions is a big issue.
However, he said that the problem is that players are okay with putting their bodies through that risk in order to achieve glory.
"When you think about the toll that NFL players are taking, it's tough. Now, the problem is, if you talk to NFL players, they're going to tell you that that's the risk I take; this is the game I play. And I don't know whether you can make football football
if there's not some pretty significant risk factors.”
He also went on to say that he personally knew ex-Chicago Bears Dave Duerson whose family have recently filed a case against the league for not providing enough information to players about the long term effects of concussions.
Duerson had committed suicide last year after suffering from after effects of concussions he had sustained over the course of his career.
President Obama added further that the biggest issue is that the game is so fast and with players so well conditioned the game has become more dangerous than it used to be in the past.
“Part of the problem is just the speed and the size of these guys now is and now, what, they just had the combine and they're talking about some guy who is like 340, who runs a 4.8 ... a 3-foot vertical. And I don't know what you do if a guy like that hits
you."
Obama also discussed his wish to see college football having a system like the playoffs in the NFL to build more excitement in the game.
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