NFL officials "improperly attempted to influence" a major U.S. government study on the link between football and brain disease, Democratic members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce said in a report released Monday.
In 2012, the NFL pledged $30 million to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health for unconditional use toward research on medical conditions in athletes. But when the league learned the money would fund a $16 million study on football and brain disease led by Boston University researcher Robert Stern, who has criticized the NFL in the past, the league allegedly tried to pressure the NIH to transfer the project to more league-friendly researchers. When the NIH refused, the NFL backed out of the funding agreement, and taxpayers bore the cost of the research.
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