You may have read The New Yorker report …

“I would not let my son play pro football,” he conceded. “But, I mean, you wrote a lot about boxing, right? We’re sort of in the same realm.”

The Miami defense was taking on a Keystone Kops quality, and Obama, who had lost hope on a Bears contest, was starting to lose interest in the Dolphins. “At this point, there’s a little bit of caveat emptor,” he went on. “These guys, they know what they’re doing. They know what they’re buying into. It is no longer a secret. It’s sort of the feeling I have about smokers, you know?”

… which makes Tony Katz ask:

First, if smokers know what they’re buying into, why do we have those futile warning labels on my precious cigars?

Second, once again President Obama has made mention of his imaginary son. (The President has two daughters in real life.) The last time was about Trayvon Martin, the older teenager who was killed by George Zimmerman during an attack on Zimmerman in a Florida community.

At the time Obama said of Martin, “You know,” said Obama, “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen.”

What an odd, overly personal turn of phrase. As TownHall columnist Ben Shaprio commented at the time: “Leave aside the fact that while Obama’s theoretical son may have looked like Trayvon at age 12, he would likely look nothing like Trayvon at age 17, what with the tattoos and gold grill.”

I don’t argue the decision of parents to make decisions for their children. My own mother refused to let me play football in high school; a decision, I remind her, she was wrong about. But she was, justifiably or not, concerned. I respect that, like I would respect President Obama for his decision about his children. …

The problem with Obama’s imaginary son (and with Obama) is that he didn’t get the lessons that football – that team sports – teach. Luke Hilgemann is the Chief Operating Officer of Americans For Prosperity. But in college, he was Luke Hilgemann, offensive tackle for the Wisconsin Badgers. I asked him about his views on being a parent with real sons:

I have two young sons and if they so choose, I would be honored for them to follow in my footsteps on the gridiron. There is no greater way to build character and learn life lessons than to share your blood, sweat and tears with your teammates in the huddle. I’m not surprised that President Obama would opt out of letting his children play football. He doesn’t strike me as someone who most people would want in their huddle anyway.

Sports teaches great lessons; about team work, about tenacity, about not quitting when the going gets tough. It teaches – when taught right – sportsmanship, friendship, and graciousness in victory and defeat.

Obama isn’t about teamwork – he’s about self-serving. Obama isn’t about tenacity – just ask the people of Iran or Syria, or Blacks dealing with an unemployment rate  of 11.9 percent (with just 60 percent participation in the labor force). Obama isn’t about sportsmanship – after all, as he reminded Republicans in 2009, he won. Obama isn’t about graciousness – after all, a selfie at a funeral speaks volumes, as does returning the bust of the great Winston Churchill

What Obama is about is hypocrisy, and using his imaginary son as his shield against criticism. He slaps football in the face while enjoying all the players who slap him on the back.

If Obama had been a football player, it’s pretty obvious what kind of player he would have been — a prima donna wide receiver who wants the ball thrown to him all the time and won’t do such dirty work as blocking. And of course he’d wear jersey number 1.

(As for actual football players-turned-presidents, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were both linemen, in Reagan’s case even though he could barely see. Offensive linemen are not glory hounds. John F. Kennedy didn’t play at Harvard, but the Kennedy touch football games were legendary.)

One of mankind’s less attractive traits is hypocrisy. It’s also a bad example to set for your children.