Super Bowl XLVII: President Barack Obama, Scott Pelley talk football safety and more

Every year, it has become a tradition before the Super Bowl for a major network new personality to sit down with the President of the United States for an interview. The past two years, we have seen Bill O’Reilly for Fox and Matt Lauer for NBC have the opportunity to down with Barack Obama for an interview; and prior to Super Bowl XLVII, the honor went to CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley.

This interview appropriately started with a discussion on football, and some now-infamous comments from the President that football should be doing everything it can to improve the safety of the sport. He yet against hesitated when asked about whether or not he would allow a son (if he had one to play football), but also praised NFL Commission Roger Goodell for some steps that he has taken in giving money to help future concussion studies.

While there were not any extremely hard-hitting questions presented to Obama by Pelley in the interview, the two did discuss such subjects as women fighting in the military, reducing the deficit, and changing a rule that will allow homosexuals to be a part of the Boy Scouts of America.

The only real surprise to us about this interview was that for whatever reason, Pelley opted to not ask the ever-familiar question as to who Obama was rooting for in the big game. While his answer would have probably been fairly political given that his beloved Chicago Bears are not in the game, it was still a question everyone thought was coming.

What do you think of Pelley’s performance during this interview, and do you also like this tradition as a whole? Be sure to share some of your thoughts with a comment below! Meanwhile, you can check out some of the notable commercials for this year’s big game over at the link here.

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Photo: CBS