Obama Weighs In on the Dangers of Football

Today we would like to introduce you to Caroline Karalias! Caroline will be interning with MFM for the semester and will be a frequent contributor to "What's Making Headlines?" Enjoy her first post below and the many more to come..

Football? Dangerous? You may say it’s risky but not dangerous. Obama, however, thinks differently, and rightly so. Studies show that professional football players are three times more likely to have neurodegenerative diseases and four times more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or ALS (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease. The players in this study had been followed since the early ‘90s by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Repeated concussions in football players have also been linked to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a disease with symptoms like Alzheimer’s that can only be diagnosed after death.

President Obama, a loyal Chicago Bears fan, knew the team’s former safety, David Duerson, who committed suicide and was diagnosed with CTE postmortem. As a football fan himself, Obama understands that seeing football become less violent may be difficult for “those of us who love the sport.” He also admits that he “[doesn’t] know whether you can make football (be) football if there’s not some pretty significant risk factors.” Obama is especially concerned about college players who have no unions to represent them nor any sort of compensation. However, he’s sees the risks as outweighing the entertainment value and would like to see a change. 

Click here to read more about Obama's comments on CNN.com...