Kevin Turner Has No Regrets, OK if Sons Play Football (AUDIO)

Safety. The word has because as synonymous with football as BCS and Super Bowl because lately its all anyone can talk about, especially when it comes to concussions.

Pop Warner is making changes.  Just this past summer its practice rules were changed to help make the game safer for the younger generation.  One rule stipulated the amount of time kids can practice, the other prohibits full-speed head on blocking when players are more than three yards apart-in hopes of limiting blows, and repeated knocks to the head.

The NFL has taken notice too.  In fact, fans are outraged that they jaw-dropping, "jacked-up" hits that used to be featured prominently on highlight shows and team websites are being taken away.  Players complain that they game they've played all their lives is changing.

However, as Commissioner Roger Goodell stares at a lawsuit from former players suing the league over its prior handling of concussions, the change was inevitable.

The movement to make the game safer, however, has not yet reached the college ranks, A fact that has drawn the attention of one of the most influential men in the United States.  Recently, President Barrack Obama told The New Republic that he has begun to worry about those players in the collegiate ranks.

Obama noted that NFL players make a choice, and are well compensated for the risks they take on the gridiron; however the collegiate athletes that play the same game are not afforded the same luxury.

"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" The president said.

Kevin Turner is a former Fullback for the University of Alabama, the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.  In 2010, Turner was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, presumably to repeated blows to the head while playing football.  Monday night he joined The Game with Ryan Fowler and Mick GIllispie and said that in looking back he has no regrets in playing the game he loved.

One of the stories that caught many people's attention in The New Republic article with President Obama is when Obama said if he had a son, he'd have a hard time letting him play football.  The same question was posed to Turner, in which he responded below.

The Game airs weeknights from 6-8pm on Tuscaloosa's Sports Authority 99.1 WDGM.  The interview can be heard in its entirety here.