Losing trust

Controversy over brain research mars meetings

Controversy about concussion research is just what the NFL didn’t need, Jarrett Bell writes,

It was supposed to be pretty low- key, as far as NFL owners meetings go.

Award a few Super Bowls. Tweak the instant replay system. Chat about Las Vegas.

All that happened, sure enough, on cue. But an elephant stomped into the room, too.

The NFL is back on its heels again after the scathing investigative report released Monday by Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. that concluded the league tried to influence the CTE research that it had pledged to support through its $ 30 million grant to the National Institutes of Health.

The investigation, sparked by an ESPN Outside The Lines report in December, names names and points to a motive — thwarting Boston University CTE expert Robert Stern, an NFL adversary who testified on behalf of plaintiffs in the class- action concussion settlement that could top $ 1 billion.

Of course, there were a lot of denials and explanations coming from the suits who gathered Tuesday at a swanky resort hotel. But at this point in the concussion saga, the pushback comes with much suspicion.

Perception is not on the NFL’s side here.

For years, the league denied there was even a link between football, concussions and longterm health risks.

Now one of the doctors associated with that position, Elliot Pellman — former head of the disbanded Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee — is named in the midst of efforts to apparently squash the research to be conducted by Stern, who, by the way, had the highest- ranked proposal. Not a good look, NFL. “It’s a bad look,” Houston Texans owner Robert McNair said. “But it’s not true.”

By the time NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell tried to explain it all at his wrap- up news conference, several owners had already expressed his sentiments. Taking a cue from Goodell, owners struck the expected consensus in refuting the report.

On one level, maybe they have a point when considering how Richard Ellenbogen, the co- chairman of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, contended in a letter to Congress — and before that, to USA TODAY Sports — that he wasn’t even consulted during the investigation. Ellenbo- gen, who was on the front lines in lobbying efforts to get laws passed in 50 states to enact return- to- play standards for youth players, vehemently denied the allegation in the report that he had a financial incentive in op- posing Stern’s research project.

Then again, it doesn’t take the NFL Players Association to point out that the NFL is running on fumes in the trust department when it comes to health and safety matters.

Sure, while NFL revenue soars, Goodell reiterated that health and safety is his No. 1 priority. Not only has the league adopted 42 playing rule changes over the last decade linked to safety, including three this year, it also has pledged $ 135 million toward research.

Yet the NFL still can’t win for losing on this front.

Researchers just happened to announce Tuesday that former defensive end Bubba Smith ( Moses Hightower of Police Academy fame) suffered from CTE, too.

And for all that the NFL has pledged, the league looks silly in trying to steer research away from Stern — although Goodell and several owners contend that such back- and- forth dialogue is normal for these types of projects.

That’s a tough sell when the NFL’s big grant to the NIH was trumpeted as unconditional.

Whatever progress the NFL has made in its campaign to ensure the world that football is safe seemingly has been set back by the type of scenario that further undermines public trust.

“The league needs to respond to that perception,” Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said. “I think perception is the right word, but reality is different.”

Blank, whose meeting was highlighted by Atlanta winning its bid to host Super Bowl LIII, said he felt Goodell’s passion and energy as the commissioner discussed the report with owners.

One owner, though, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t comfortable speaking publicly on the matter, indicated there was sentiment that Stern was biased against the NFL.

All told, the NFL — which jumps from one crisis to another, including the Tom Brady Deflategate matter that is pending an appeal filed Monday — is circling the wagons again.

Blank, for one, acknowledges the image hit of this fresh case and the challenge ahead.

“The league probably needs to do more in communicating, I think, the research that it is supporting and its side on some of the issues and arguments,” he said.

“I don’t think these campaigns, when they come up, it will be one- and- done. I think you have to reiterate why you’re involved in this, why we’re committing these resources behind it, why we care about it.”

That’s all well and good. But getting people to believe it is surely another matter.

“The league probably needs to do more in communicating ... the research that it is supporting.” Falcons owner Arthur Blank

BOB LEVERONE, AP NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking after the owners meetings Tuesday, denied that the league tried to influence a brain research study that the league helped to fund.