In an upcoming issue in The New Republic, President Barack Obama says that he isn’t so sure he’d let his son play football.

‘‘And 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,’’ Obama said.

‘‘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.’’

As we know, Obama does not have a son, so this is just hypothetical of course. He also worries more about players from college than from the NFL.

‘‘The NFL players have a union, they’re grown men, they can make some of these decisions on their own, and most of them are well-compensated for the violence they do to their bodies,’’ he said. ‘‘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. That’s something that I’d like to see the NCAA think about.’’

Duncan Steel | Elite.