"To be clear, I am not and never have been paid by the NFL nor have I ever received funding through the research grant dollars in question. I am a physician on the front lines of this issue, treating kids and counseling parents every day on understanding concussions and repetitive head injury. I feel passionately that there is urgent work ahead to fill the tremendous gap in funding and support on this issue.
OK! Now that's a whole lot of horse manure in one paragraph so let's really suss this out.The report found that the NFL violated policies put in place to prevent private donors from interfering with NIH-funded groups. The report also found that this was part of "long-standing pattern of attempts" made by the league to influence the studies. So, technically, I guess Goodell is kind of being honest when he says that "it is normal practice to have discussions back and forth with the NIH." Only problem is, that particular "standard practice" of the NFL's happens to be against the rules. Oops!The NFL's commitment to letting the public know they are committed to medical research is well documented.According to the report, the NFL agreed to the terms of the study in July of 2014 and promised $16,325,242 which was essentially the full budget for the study. When Dr. Stern's group was awarded the funding nearly a year later, the NFL began laying the ground work for backing out. By December of 2015, the NIH still did not know whether the NFL was going to make good on its promise. The report found that rather than just give the $16 million, the NFL offered $2 million for the study, and tried redirecting the original $16 million to fund a different study with their own group. With the obvious strings-attached nature of the NFL's involvement, the NIH said "thanks, but no thanks" to both.Was that "Ultimately the NIH's decision?" In the universe the NFL operates in, it was.[PFT]"I take a much different position to that on several fronts," Goodell said. "One is our commitment to medical research is well documented. We made a commitment to the NIH. It is normal practice to have discussions back and forth with the NIH. We have several members that are advisors on our committees — Betsy Nagel, Rich Ellenbogen —who have had experience with NIH or worked with NIH. It is very important to continue to have that kind of dialogue through appropriate channels, which our advisors have. That's a standard practice. We have our commitment of $30 million to the NIH. We're not pulling that back one bit. We continue to focus on things our advisors believe are important to study. Ultimately it is the NIH's decision."