Sports

NFL Tried To Fix Concussion Study

And Then Stuck Taxpayers With The Cost

"At least a half-dozen top NFL health officials waged an improper, behind-the-scenes campaign last year to influence a major U.S. government research study on football and brain disease, congressional investigators have concluded in a new report," ESPN's Outside the Lines reports.

"The 91-page report describes how the NFL pressured the National Institutes of Health to strip the $16 million project from a prominent Boston University researcher and tried to redirect the money to members of the league's committee on brain injuries. The study was to have been funded out of a $30 million 'unrestricted gift' the NFL gave the NIH in 2012.

"After the NIH rebuffed the NFL's campaign to remove Robert Stern, an expert in neurodegenerative disease who has criticized the league, the NFL backed out of a signed agreement to pay for the study, the report shows. Taxpayers ended up bearing the cost instead."

From Outside the Lines:

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"NESN.com's Keely Flanagan breaks down the newest Congressional report."

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"A congressional investigation has found that the NFL tried to influence how a concussion study was conducted."

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Trailer: Concussion.

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New this week from former Bear Tommie Harris:

Tommie Harris won't let his son play tackle football until he's 13 or 14. "If you ain't getting a scholarship, you shouldn't be doing it."

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) May 22, 2016

Hear the interview here.

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"For U.S. college football players, head impacts that don't cause concussion symptoms do still cause subtle and lingering changes in the eyes' ability to focus, according to a new study," Reuters reported last week.

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Previously:

* Bob Probert's Broken Brain.

* NFL Players Killing Themselves Because They Miss Football So Much.

* The College Football Report: Dementia Pugilistica.

* Blackhawks Playing Head Games.

* Jay Cutler Should Consider Retiring.

* Dislike: Friday Night Tykes.

* Hurt And Be Hurt: The Lessons Of Youth Sports.

* Chicago Soccer Player Patrick Grange Had CTE.

* Sony Softened Concussion To Placate NFL.

* Ultra-Realistic Madden To Simulate Game's Debilitating Concussions.

* Dear Football: I'm Breaking Up With You.

* Dead College Football Player's Brain Leaves Clues Of Concussions' Toll On Brain.

* More Bad Concussion News For Young Football Players.

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Comments welcome.

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