WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he's a football fan but that if he had a son, considering the impact the game has on its players, he would think long and hard before allowing his son to play.

Obama tells The New Republic that football fans are going to have to wrestle with the fact that the game will probably change over time to try to reduce the violence. The president says that some of those changes might make football, in his words, "a bit less exciting" but that it will be much better for players.

Obama says he worries more about college players than those in the NFL because they have a union, are well-paid and are grown men.

The interview appears in the Feb. 11 issue of The New Republic.