NFL tried to influence government CTE research, congressional report shows
U.S. congressional investigators have concluded that the NFL privately attempted to influence a government research study on football and brain disease, according to Outside the Lines.
The $16-million study, aimed at discovering ways to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients, was to be funded by a $30-million grant the NFL provided to the National Institutes of Health in 2012.
That signed commitment was rescinded in December when the NIH refused to remove Boston University researcher Robert Stern from the project. The NFL was allegedly opposed to Stern taking a lead role, as he had previously been critical of the league and its handling of brain injury risk.
As detailed in the newest Outside the Lines report, the NFL pulled its funding and tried to redirect money to its own brain injury committee when the NIH refused to remove Stern. Taxpayers reportedly had to pick up the bill on the $16-million project as a result.
"Once you get anybody who's heavily involved with the NFL trying to influence what kind of research takes place, you break that chain that guarantees the integrity, and that's what I think is so crucial here," U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. told Outside the Lines.
"Fortunately, the NIH didn't take the bait. It shouldn't be a rigged game. If it is, then people won't really know whether what we're finding through this research is accurate."
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy issued a statement on the league's behalf in response to the report.
"We are reviewing the (congressional) report but categorically reject any suggestion of improper influence," he said.