Controversy brewing around the NFL, concussions, research funding and conflicts of interest
The NFL Needs Distance From Its Brain-Injury Funding (The Wall Street Journal):
“Despite its immense popularity among spectators and players, football is facing an existential threat due to the long-term health risks presented by repetitive injuries to the head. A new disease has even been associated with these injuries—chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the subject of the recent Will Smith movie, “Concussion.”
Evidence compiled by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” revealed that the NFL has favored some league-friendly scientists over others by directing where funding is awarded. There is a troubling association between views on the science of concussions and the closeness of relationship of some scientists with the NFL. Despite some funding going to independent researchers, one researcher quipped, “It felt like we were going back to the stage where the people who were funded by Big Tobacco were saying smoking is not harmful.”
To learn more:
- Study: Traumatic Brain Injury patients with high cognitive reserve recover 7 times better
- NFL donates $30 million to improve concussion & brain injury care
- Trend: Software-based assessments of memory & cognition to detect concussions after head trauma
- Neuroimaging studies: In soccer, over one thousand “headers” per year can lead to brain injury and cognitive impairment