NFL backs away from funding BU brain study; NIH to fund it instead

[n2doc]

The NFL, which spent years criticizing researchers who warned about the dangers of football-related head trauma, has backed out of one of the most ambitious studies yet on the relationship between football and brain disease, sources familiar with the project told Outside the Lines.

The seven-year, $16 million initiative was to be funded out of a $30 million research grant the NFL gave the National Institutes of Health in 2012. The NFL has said repeatedly that it has no control over how that money is spent, but the league balked at this study, sources said, because the NIH awarded the project to a group led by Dr. Robert Stern, a prominent Boston University researcher who has been critical of the league.

In a news release announcing the study Tuesday morning, Boston University said the NIH would pay for the project but made no mention of the NFL. The study seeks to capture what has been described as the holy grail of concussion research: the ability to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in living patients.

Asked why the NFL did not want to fund the study, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy on Monday referred questions to the NIH, writing in an email: "The NIH makes its own funding decisions." He did not respond to follow up questions. On Tuesday, McCarthy tweeted that the story was wrong.

The NFL's decision not to fund the Boston University CTE study delayed its announcement for months, and the issue ultimately reached the office of NIH director Dr. Francis S. Collins, according to sources. As late as this week, some officials held out hope the league would change its mind, but the NIH remained committed to funding the project regardless.

more

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/14417386/nfl-pulls-funding-boston-university-head-trauma-study-concerns-researcher

[niyad]

1. between the sexism, and the utter lack of care for their players, the scamming of the american

people with the taxpayer-funded patriotic moments, etc., etc., and the fact that the owners are almost all puke supporters, is there anything positive about this corrupt organization?

[2naSalit]

2. Good...as long as

Congress doesn't pull funding for it. Because, fuck the NFL.

[Chemisse]

3. Groups with an interest in the outcome should not be funding studies.

At least if they are to be considered scientific and unbiased. And here is a good reason why.

It would be a shame to have a large and important study like this done, and then have the results tarnished by NFL money.