Tom Brady and the NFLPA plan to file a brief on his 4-game suspension today as we’re nearing 500 days of this whole “Delfategate” nonsense. Additionally, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce found today in a 91-page report that the NFL tied to exert “undue influence” over a study regarding the detection of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients. One of these things is important.

“This is why the NFLPA refused to be a part of any study with the NFL,” NFLPA president and Bengals OL Eric Winston (above) tweeted. “They cannot be trusted to do the right thing when it involves players.”

Here’s NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith talking about that on ESPN:

“The league has a history of being bullies. And today we’re filing a brief because the commissioner decided to be a bully when it came to the fair hearing of a player. Today, hearing that report from Capitol Hill, just reaffirms the fact that the league has their own view about how they care about the players of the NFL. Thankfully, we have a union that fights them, but everybody now knows the league doesn’t really believe in following the science. The league doesn’t really have a commitment to the health and safety of our players.”

The Brady situation is an instance of neither side letting it go when they probably should have. But the Congressional report is another issue altogether. In March, four members of Congress asked the NFL to “provide documents and other information regarding efforts to intervene in the selection of a researcher at Boston University who would lead a major study on the connection between football and brain disease.” The query came from an alleged campaign by the NFL to stop Dr. Robert Stern of Boston University from researching the issue and instead replace him with researchers the NFL chose and were affiliated with. According to the ensuing investigation, “at least a half-dozen top NFL health officials waged an improper, behind-the-scenes campaign last year to influence a major U.S. government research study on football and brain disease.”

Here’s what else was learned, according to ESPN:

  • “The NFL pressured the National Institutes of Health to strip the $16 million project from a prominent Boston University researcher and tried to redirect the money to members of the league’s committee on brain injuries. The study was to have been funded out of a $30 million “unrestricted gift” the NFL gave the NIH in 2012.”
  • “After the NIH rebuffed the NFL’s campaign to remove Robert Stern, an expert in neurodegenerative disease who has criticized the league, the NFL backed out of a signed agreement to pay for the study, the report shows. Taxpayers ended up bearing the cost instead.”
  • “The NFL’s actions violated policies that prohibit private donors from interfering in the NIH peer-review process, the report concludes, and were part of a “long-standing pattern of attempts” by the league to shape concussion research for its own purposes.”
  • The NFL’s co-chairman on brain injuries “was one of the league’s “primary advocates” opposing Stern, even though Ellenbogen had applied for the same grant and stood to benefit personally.”

Basically, in layman’s terms, the NFL tried to have their own people do the research so they could control the findings. When they weren’t allowed to do that, they reneged on an agreement to pay for the study. After a review panel upheld Dr. Stern’s role in the study, the NFL tried to use the money they promised to the original study to fund a separate one – outside of the NIH’s peer-review process – that would undoubtedly cast doubts on Stern’s findings. I don’t think you can find a giant, faceless, super-villain organization (HYRDRA, SPECTRE, etc.) that would even attempt this. Goodell did.

Last June, Dr. Elliott Pellman (Paul Reiser in Concussion) said the NFL had “significant concerns [regarding] BU and their ability to be unbiased and collaborative,” and asked that they “slow down the process until we all have a chance to speak and figure this out.” Right, BU wouldn’t be unbiased, so let’s let the NFL hand-select the researchers. That screams unbiased, right?

There’s much more on ESPN (and even more in the 91-page Congressional report), but of course, this is already being overshadowed by the continuous, never-ending Deflategate nonsense that will outlive us all. The NFL is trying to control the science on brain injuries to cover their own asses – not the first time, either – and we’re all distracted by Tom Brady’s balls.

Kyle: Classic tactic used by tobacco, sugar, chemical companies etc. to distract from the issue at hand. Just plunge themselves into a never-ending series of studies that determine we need more studies, all while they continue doing what they do. So evil. So nefarious.