If he had a son, President Barack Obama wouldn't let him play professional football, the president said recently in a profile published in The New Yorker. Obama added that he believes today's players know the risks of the sport they play.
Obama made the comments to David Remnick, the magazine's editor and a former sports reporter for The Washington Post.
Obama made the comments while watching the Miami Dolphins take on the Carolina Panthers. Remnick asked Obama, according to the article, "if he didn't feel at all ambivalent about following the sport."
"I would not let my son play pro football," Obama said. "But, I mean, you wrote a lot about boxing, right? We're sort of in the same realm."
But Obama added that players now are aware of the risks they take.
"At this point, there's a little bit of caveat emptor," Obama said. "These guys, they know what they're doing. They know what they're buying into. It is no longer a secret. It's sort of the feeling I have about smokers, you know?"
The comments were part of a lengthy profile recently published on the magazine's website.