--- description: "I’m sure that that ringing sensation in my head and the need to sit down for a while might have been a mild concussion," Obama said. title: Obama Says He Might Have Had Mild Concussion Playing Football as a Kid image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Obama Says He Might Have Had Mild Concussion Playing Football as a Kid by [Zeke Miller](/author/zeke-j-miller/) and [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) May 29, 2014 6:00 PM CUT by [Zeke Miller](/author/zeke-j-miller/) and [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) May 29, 2014 6:00 PM CUT President Barack Obama discussed his own injury history on Thursday at the first-ever White House Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit, speculating he suffered from “mild” concussions when he was younger. --- > “” --- Thursday’s summit is intended to find new ways to prevent and treat head injuries in youth athletes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/137220/obama-mild-concussion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/137220/obama-mild-concussion/"},"headline":"Obama Says He Might Have Had Mild Concussion Playing Football as a Kid","datePublished":"2014-05-29T18:00:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T11:31:58.530Z","description":"\"I’m sure that that ringing sensation in my head and the need to sit down for a while might have been a mild concussion,\" Obama said.","url":"https://time.com/137220/obama-mild-concussion/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","concussions","NFL"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/137220/obama-mild-concussion/","name":"Obama Says He Might Have Had Mild Concussion Playing Football as a Kid"}}]}] ```