Last year, the NFL announced a $100 million commitment to concussion research. But in the time since that pledge was announced, the NFL has only funded a study focused on jockeys.

The study aims to find out why high concussion rates in horse racing don't translate into "deteriorating brain function in later life," a question that many scientists believe has little to do with football. The study is led by an Australian researcher who once described American coverage of CTE as "carry-on and hoo-hah" and a British doctor whose concussion presentations sometimes have included flippant jokes and video of tumbling jockeys set to slapstick music. 

The NFL has taken the science in-house and under its control.

"I would view it just as if any giant corporation was doing internal research," said Stefan Duma, a concussion researcher who is the interim director for Virginia Tech's Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. "This is internal research that the NFL controls."

Several concussion experts reached by Outside the Lines doubted that equestrian sports were an appropriate vehicle to draw conclusions about long-term mental illness in football players. 

The NFL has announced just two projects from its $100 million "Play Smart, Play Safe" campaign, totaling $210,000.

"It's going to take 500 years to distribute this money" at this rate, said one concussion researcher.

The NFL believes better helmets will improve player safety, though they had a similar initiative in 1994.

"The majority of that $100 million -- $60 million -- is going to technology, and 'technology' is a nice word to say 'better helmet,'" said Dr. Robert Cantu. "They're hoping they can come up with a better helmet that will largely make the problem go away. Helmets can obviously make it better, but no, realistically, it's the violent shaking of the brain, the rapid movement of the head. And the masses involved of individuals colliding with their heads and other body parts is just too great. They could probably get it better, but I don't think the helmet will ever solve the issue."

NFL players have been unable to secure a contract tied to the growth of the salary cap. Darrelle Revis attempted to get it into his contract in 2010 while Kirk Cousins sought a clause in his 2016 negotiations.

The NFL salary cap has grown by 37 percent since 2013.

Teams have resisted tying salary to the cap as it negates their benefit of a long-term deal.

In the NBA, maximum contracts are tied to the salary cap for the first season of the deal and then have pre-determined raises every year thereafter. When a player becomes a free agent again, they can sign for a percentage of the salary cap again depending on their years of service.

As Peter King points out, quarterbacks are making approximately the same percentage of the cap (15 percent) as they were in 1997. Brett Favre had an average salary of $6.5 million in 1997, which was 15.7 percent of the cap. In 2017, Matthew Stafford's average salary of $25.3 million represents 15.1 percent of the cap.

NFLPA president Eric Winston agrees with DeMaurice Smith that a work stoppage in 2021 is likely. The current relationship between the NFL and the union is contentious. 

Winston also suggested players shouldn't care that a strike or lockout "might kill the goose that laid the golden egg."

"Honestly I don't care and I don't think the guys in this locker room care whether [the NFL] is going to be around in 20 years because none of us are going to be playing," Winston, an offensive tackle for the Bengals, told WCPO. "So if these guys [the owners] want to own for a long time, then they can own for a long time. But another work stoppage might kill the golden goose."

Smith said last week that "the likelihood of either a strike or a lockout is almost a virtual certainty."

Players are preparing for the possibility of a long-term stoppage.

"I'm certainly not worried about it," he said. "I'm not going to be around that long. I don't care if even if there are rookies in here -- they're not going to be playing that long.

"So if this thing dies out in 20 years, it dies out in 20 years. That's not really my concern, and I don't think it's any of these players' concern in here either."

There was speculation recently that Roger Goodell's job as commissioner could be in jeopardy due to how he's taken on both Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft during high profile suspensions.

But Goodell is on the cusp of a contract extension.

Ownership sources say Goodell's job was never in danger and he's trying to follow protocol on the Ezekiel Elliott situation.

Some owners feel that Jones has been "beyond out of line" a few times recently, never more than last October, when he yelled at NFL executive Lisa Friel at a hotel bar over the Elliott investigation.

Goodell is likely to remain in the job until he's at least 65 (2024).

DeMaurice Smith has accused Roger Goodell of lying about wanting to work with the union prior to drafting the league's revised conduct policy in 2014.

Smith, in an interview with HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," was asked about Goodell's comments prior to drafting a revised personal conduct policy in 2014 in which the commissioner said he would "ask the NFL Players Association to help us develop and deliver these programs in the most effective way."

"That says he lied," Smith told Gumbel.

Smith followed by telling Gumbel that he doesn't "spend time thinking about Roger Goodell's thoughts" and that he doesn't "have the luxury of trust" when it comes to his relationship with the commissioner.

Tom Brady declined to confirm whether or not he had a concussion in 2016.

Brady's wife, Gisele Bundchen, had said in May that Brady was concussed last season.

"I don't want to get into things that happened in my past, certainly medical history and so forth. I really don't think that's anybody's business," Brady said after the team's practice at Gillette Stadium. "What happened last year; I'm focused on this year and improving and working on things I need to get better at.

"So that's how I approach everything. I'm not sitting here worried about last year or five years ago. There are other people that do worry about that -- my wife, or my parents, or my sisters, people that love me and care about me. But I do the best I can do to be prepared to play -- mentally and physically -- and I give the game everything I can."

Brady turned 40 this week and was asked whether he's paid attention to recent studies on CTE.

"You're not blind to it as a player. That's why I believe in so much of being proactive with your health," Brady said. "I think when you're a player, and you see other players before you that did things a certain way and what's transpired with their health or well-being, and then you learn from it. I think that's the things I've really tried to incorporate in my own life.

"So I'm confident in what I do. I'm confident in the things I do and the ways I train, you know. But it's a contact sport, and I think we all understand that. There are a lot of great benefits that football brings you, [but] certainly you can be put in harm's way. So you just do the best you can do as a player, and obviously it's great that there is more awareness for those types of things. That's been a very important topic, certainly. But you just try to be proactive and take care of your body the best way you can."

Roger Goodell spoke at length about recent CTE studies on Thursday.

"We appreciate the studies and we actually not only appreciate them, we funded a lot of these studies," said Goodell. "What we all need is more information. There is one thing that is clear among this medical community is that we have a lot more questions than we have answers. We need more research and I think we have led the way on that front. We've not only led with research, but we've led with rule changes to our game, we've led on awareness to the injuries, we've led on how we can develop new equipment that will make our game safer for our players.

"There's a new helmet coming out this year that came out of what we call the GE NFL Head Health Initiative. We put it out that - how do we use new materials, how do we use new technology to create a better helmet that's going to absorb the impact? And we have one that's hitting the market this year. It was developed by somebody in Seattle. It was funded with that money.

"I think that because of that leadership, because we've taken responsibility to really manage the health and safety of our players that is going to be seen as 'Hey, they're doing the right things. Sure they have challenges, but so does every active sport.' What we're learning in our sport is helping every other sport."

The NFL may be willing to work with the NFL Players Association to study the use of marijuana as pain management.

Marijuana is currently banned by the NFL.

The NFLPA is conducting its own study and, according to those familiar with the deliberations, is yet to respond to the NFL’s offer to cooperate on marijuana-related research.

“We look forward to working with the Players Association on all issues involving the health and safety of our players,” said Joe Lockhart, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications.