ATLANTA — Hours earlier than the game’s largest recreation, President Trump joined the rising ranks of fogeys anxious over deal with soccer, saying in an interview he “would have a tough time” letting his 12-year-old son play.
“I imply, it’s a harmful sport and I feel it’s, I, it’s actually powerful” if his son wished to take up the sport, Mr. Trump mentioned in an interview with CBS forward of its Sunday night broadcast of the Tremendous Bowl.
The president’s considerations are at odds along with his earlier criticism that the N.F.L. has been making the sport too comfortable to keep away from concussions and different accidents, and counsel that he’s combating lots of the identical questions that folks throughout the nation are asking concerning the security of youth deal with soccer.
Mr. Trump mentioned he would in the end let his youngest son, Barron, who performs soccer, resolve if he wished to play deal with soccer and wouldn’t steer him away from the game.
However the president mentioned he had seen experiences concerning the risks of enjoying deal with soccer, and heard that some N.F.L. gamers weren’t letting their sons play deal with soccer.
His feedback added one other wrinkle to his ambivalent relationship with the sport he usually celebrates, but in addition laments. His doubts concerning the security of the sport come 5 years after President Barack Obama mentioned that if he had a son, he would not let him play skilled soccer.
Some studies have suggested that enjoying deal with soccer earlier than age 12 places athletes at the next danger of growing cognitive issues later in life, however the difficulty has not been extensively studied. Generally, there was rising consciousness of C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease many former gamers have developed from repeated hits to the pinnacle.
Because of such considerations, participation in flag soccer has exploded.
But whereas Mr. Obama held a discussion board on the White Home on the hazards of concussions, Mr. Trump has repeatedly mentioned the N.F.L. is being overprotective.
In September 2017, as an example, Mr. Trump complained that the N.F.L. was ruining the sport as a result of the referees have been attempting to regulate unnecessarily tough tackles.
“In the present day for those who hit too exhausting — 15 yards! Throw him out of the sport!” he mentioned, including: “They’re ruining the sport! They’re ruining the sport. That’s what they wish to do. They wish to hit. They wish to hit! It’s hurting the sport.”
At a marketing campaign rally in 2016, Mr. Trump referred to a lady within the viewers who fainted, however returned to the gang.
“The lady was out chilly and now she’s coming again,” he said. “See? We don’t go by these new, and really a lot softer, N.F.L. guidelines. Concussion. Oh, oh! Obtained a bit of ding on the pinnacle. No, no, you may’t play for the remainder of the season. Our persons are powerful.”
Trump additionally called the N.F.L. “comfortable” for penalizing helmet-to-helmet hits.
Within the CBS interview, nevertheless, he sounded extra cautionary notes.
“I hate to say it, as a result of I really like to look at soccer,” Mr. Trump mentioned. “I feel the N.F.L. is a superb product, however I actually suppose that so far as my son — properly, I’ve heard N.F.L. gamers saying they wouldn’t let their sons play soccer. So, it’s not completely distinctive, however I, I might have a tough time with it.”