Roger Goodell Pens Letter Committing To Full $30 Million For NIH Concussion Studies
BOSTON (CBS) -- After an explosive Congressional report that the NFL rescinded $16 million of a $30 million grant to the National Institutes of Health over disagreements with a researcher chosen for concussion studies, commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter to team owners and presidents to reaffirm his commitment to the full $30 million.
"As discussed during our recent meeting, the NFL has a unique responsibility and opportunity to drive change and advance progress in the prevention and treatment of head injuries. That is our unwavering commitment to our players, former players, athletes at all levels, and society more broadly," the letter begins, according to a copy posted on Facebook by Adam Schefter.
Goodell's letter says that the league originally granted the funding "to accelerate scientific understanding of concussion and head injury," and that they were always devoted to "honoring that commitment in its entirety."
That commitment includes two separate $6 million grants to the NIH, $6 million to the Boston University School of Medicine and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, $6 million to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and "more than $2 million" for six "pilot projects" to "provide support for the early stages of sports-related concussion projects."
The Congressional report, released earlier this week, says that the league canceled $16 million of the grant due to the selection of Dr. Robert A. Stern from the BU School of Medicine to oversee the research, which is primarily aimed at finding a way to discover the progressive degenerative brain disorder C.T.E. in living patients.
