SPORTS NEWS:
A report issued Monday by a senior House Democrat alleges that the NFL "improperly attempted to influence the grant review process for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) brain injury study that the NFL had agreed to fund as part of a $30 million donation." New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, who wrote the report, concluded that, among other things, the league attempted to improperly influence the grant selection process at the NIH, and the Foundation for NIH (FNIH) did not fulfill its role of acting as an intermediary between the NFL and the NIH. The findings were the result of an ESPN report alleging the NFL backed out of funding a study by the NIH based on its objections of bias surrounding the Boston University grantee selected by the NIH to conduct the study. "This investigation confirms the NFL inappropriately attempted to use its unrestricted gift as leverage to steer funding away from one of its critics," Pallone said in a release. "Since its research agreement with NIH was clear that it could not weigh in on the grant selection process, the NFL should never have tried to influence that process.