Last year, more than 2,000 former NFL players got together and filed a lawsuit against the league, claiming the institution concealed information linking their injuries to long-term brain damage. Over the past several years, the number of high school and college students experiencing brain-related injuries due to football also skyrocketed, leaving many to wonder, is the sport safe at all?
President Obama is now speaking out about the risks in playing on the gridiron, saying if he had a son he’d “think long and hard” about the decision to let him play. “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,” said Obama, according to the Associated Press.
“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.”
The Commander-in-Chief made it known he’s more concerned about college athletes getting hit on the field than professional players. According to him, “The NFL players have a union, they’re grown men, they can make some decisions on their own, and more 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.”
What do you think? Would you or wouldn’t you let you child play football?
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