The NFL has backed out of a massive research project that is seeking to better understand the relationship between playing football and brain disease, according to a report.
ESPN’s Outside the Lines reports that the NFL pulled a $30 million research grant that it gave the National Institute of Health in 2012. The NFL initially stated that there would be “no strings attached” in regard to how the money is spent, but the league reportedly backed out when Robert Stern was chosen to lead a massive Boston University research study that is being funded by the NIH.
Stern, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Boston University, has been critical of the NFL in the past. In 2014, he filed a declaration opposing the NFL’s settlement with several former players who claimed they were lied to about the dangers of playing football. Stern said that the settlement would result in many deserving players being denied compensation.
In addition, former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, who retired after just one NFL season because of concerns about brain disease, said he consulted Stern before making his decision.
Less than an hour after OTL published its report, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy claimed it was not the NFL’s decision to pull funding.
ESPN story is not accurate. NFL did not pull any funding. NIH makes its own decisions.
— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) December 22, 2015
So the NIH just decided it no longer wanted the $30 million? Dr. Walter Koroshetz, director of NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, recently said he would be “upset” if the NFL backed out.
“No one has ever said that to me: ‘The NFL said no,'” Koroshetz said. “They’re their own organization. They have committed $30 million. I am hopeful they stick to their commitment. If they don’t, then I’ll be upset.”
And of course, the NFL is already being ripped for its hypocrisy in immediately attempting to correct the OTL report. Why was the league so quick to correct that information when it made absolutely no effort to correct Chris Mortensen’s false report about Deflategate?
We all know the answer to that.
