Advertisement

Sports With Littlefield: The NFL's $100 Million Player Safety Initiative

08:30
Download Audio
Resume
Consumers have relied on STAR ratings when to assess the safety of football helmets. But researchers are now questioning the rating system. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Consumers have relied on STAR ratings when to assess the safety of football helmets. But researchers are now questioning the rating system. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The NFL announced today that the league is pledging $100 million to player safety initiatives, with a focus on preventing brain injuries -- $60 million of that money is going to technological development, like researching better helmets, and the rest is going to research into the health effects of concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE (though the league officially maintains it's too early to know for sure if there is a link between football and CTE).

The NFL is also establishing an independent advisory board of brain injury experts. Commissioner Roger Goodell even told The Washington Post the league might do away with kickoffs, which carry a high risk of serious injury, if they cannot be made safer.

Guest

Bill Littlefield, host of NPR’s Only A Game, which tweets @OnlyAGameNPR

This segment aired on September 14, 2016.

Related:

Advertisement

More from Radio Boston

Listen Live
Close