Presidents Did Not Always Just Veto Bills: They Played Sports too!
When people think of presidents and the White House, they usually put politics with athletics. Every year after a team wins a national or world championship, they are invited to the White House to meet the president. This has been a tradition for many years. Last year, for example, the New York Yankees and New Orleans Saints accepted the invite after winning their respective championship. What the teams and people do not see is the background of sports with the actual presidents.
Our current president Barack Obama played many sports before his presidency and still does. Last March for a presentation on March Madness for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)Tournament, he played a game of P-I-G, which is a game of tough shots and whoever misses the other players exact shot gets the letters until one player comes up with PIG, with Clark Kellogg, a former Indiana Pacer. He was all suited up in his shirt and tie and still gave the former NBA star a game. Last year during the Major League Baseball season, he threw the first pitch for the Chicago White Sox game, which was actually a decent pitch. If the White Sox are ever struggling in the pitcher’s region, just holler at Obama to pitch. Obama continues to fill out a NCAA tourney bracket every March. Two years ago, he correctly picked the North Carolina Tar Heels to win the whole thing. Although last year he did not pick the correct winner of the tournament, he had a very accurate bracket filled out. Much better than an ordinary person that had filled one out.
Now, Obama is not the only president that could play sports. Gerald Ford, our president in 1974-1977, was very into athletics early in his life. He was the captain of his high school football team, Grand Rapids South. He was highly recruited and attended the University of Michigan to play center and linebacker. He helped the Wolverines to undefeated seasons and national titles in 1932 and 1933. He also was honored as the Wolverine's MVP in 1934. He surprisingly turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers to play football at the National level.
George W. Bush, our 43rd president of the USA, played baseball in high school up in Massachusetts. By his senior year, he was the lead cheerleader of the all-men boarding school. At Yale University, he was a keen rugby union player. Not only was Bush a serious athlete, he also invested in them too. He invested into the Texas Rangers, a very successful MLB team. Those who just look at George Bush, might not ever think he would play sports.George, like Bill Clinton, was also a very dedicated runner.
We do not look into these things like presidents playing sports, but yet they had childhoods too. Just like us, they were teens. Many presidents had interesting childhoods and lives. People only look at the politics part of their lives and that can get too boring. These facts are very interesting and Obama will not be the last president to play sports.