Super Bowl: Donald Trump would have a hard time letting his son play football | sport

In an interview broadcast on the biggest day of the NFL calendar, Donald Trump said he would have a hard time letting his son play football.

The president made the statement in an interview scheduled for Sunday on the CBS website, Face the Nation, just hours before the launch of the Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. When asked if he would be comfortable leaving his 12-year-old son to practice a sport that has been repeatedly linked to traumatic brain injury, he called it a "difficult question".

"[Would I let him play] if he wanted it? Yes. Would I guide him that way? No, I would not, "said Trump.

Barron is a talented footballer and played for DC United's under-12 team. Trump said he was more comfortable with his son playing football.

"I do not like the reports I see on football," Trump said. "I mean, it's a dangerous sport and … I thought the equipment would be better, and that's the case. The helmets have improved a lot, but the problem has not been solved.

"So, you know, I hate to say it because I love watching football. I think the NFL is a great product, but I really think that in terms of my son, I heard the NFL players say they would not let their sons play football. So. It's not entirely unique, but I would have a hard time using it. "

Trump's comments are at odds with what he said at a campaign rally in 2016, where he complained about "soft football".

"The whole game is messed up," he says then. "You say," Wow, what a tackle. "Bing, Flag, football has become soft, football has become soft, now I'm going to be criticized for it, they'll say," Oh, it's not that bad. "But football has become soft, just like our country has become sweet. "

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, which can only be diagnosed after death, has been found in hundreds of former football players, though it is often badociated with veterans NFL rather than young athletes. Symptoms of CTE include depression, memory loss and mood swings.

Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who knelt on the national anthem to protest racial injustices and has since been exiled from the league, was a topic of discussion during the preparation of Sunday's New England Patriots game. and the Los Angeles.

The NFL struggled to find artists to play at the halftime Super Bowl show. The artists said that they would stay away, in solidarity with Kaepernick. Trump attacked Kaepernick and other players who had knelt in the previous anthem. He was asked on CBS whether he thought the quarterback was right about racial injustice in the United States, particularly with regard to the number of African Americans killed by the police.

"Well, you know, I'm the one who has pbaded the judicial reform," said Trump. "And if you look at what I did, the criminal justice reform and what I did, President Obama tried. They all tried. Everyone wanted to do it. And I did it and I, you know, really – a lot of people in the NFL called me and thanked me for that.

"They called and thanked, you know, that people tried to solve this problem. The bill has now entered into law and affects a considerable number of people, and very good people. I think when you want to protest, I think it's great. But I do not think you do it on behalf of our flag, on behalf of our national anthem. Absolutely."

Trump was referring to a set of prisons and sentencing reforms, adopted with bipartisan support in December.

The only African-American Republican senator, Tim Scott, described the president as "insensitive racist". Trump denied having trouble attracting black voters.

"I have very good relationships with Tim and certainly with his state, South Carolina, and where we are doing very well," he said. "And I think if you look at the unemployment figures of African Americans, you'll get the best numbers they've got – literally the best numbers in history. And I think that they like me a lot and that I love them very much.