Barack Obama is a sports guy
President Barack Obama speaks during an interview in the White House library in Washington. (Oct. 4, 2013) Credit: AP
Like him or not politically, Barack Obama demonstrated again this past week in a podcast with ESPN’s Bill (Sports Guy) Simmons that he is a legit sports fan.
Obama weighed in knowledgably on everything from the Bulls’ personnel to Jeremy Lin to college football playoff systems to concussions in sports.
Many Presidents have had strong athletic backgrounds, topped by Gerald Ford, an All-America football center at Michigan. But even more have been avid sports fans, at a level disproportionate to the male population at large, with each of the past three in particular regularly demonstrating sports bona fides.
There are numerous other examples, including Ronald Reagan, who before he turned to acting recreated baseball games for an Iowa radio station.
But the all-timer in this category is Richard Nixon, who six months into his Presidency said this: “I like the job I have, but if I had to live my life over again, I would have liked to have ended up as a sportswriter.’’
