NFL gives $1m to BU for brain trauma research

The National Football League said today it will give $1 million to a Boston University research center that has brought wide attention to the long-term damage athletes suffer from head injuries.

The unrestricted gift will fund further research on repetitive brain trauma in athletes at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine. Football players are particularly vulnerable to repetitive blows to the head, which can lead to a degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy -- also known as "punch drunk syndrome."  The condition eventually progresses to dementia.

The BU center, founded in 2008, has to date examined the brains of deceased athletes.

"We obviously are very interested in the Center’s research on the long-term effects of head trauma in athletes,"  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "It is our hope this research will lead to a better understanding of these effects and also to developing ways to help detect, prevent and treat these injuries."

The no-strings-attached gift to BU represents the latest step in a turnaround by the NFL that began in 2009, when it reversed its opposition to guidelines for how soon athletes could return to play after sustaining a concussion and mandated that an independent neurologist examine the player.

Dr. Robert Cantu, co-director of the center and clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine, said the money will allow for accelerated, independent research.  “This gift and the significant changes made in recent months by the NFL demonstrate the League’s commitment to the health and safety of current, retired, and future players, as well as millions of youth athletes."