The NFL's top health and safety officer acknowledged Monday there is a link between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

This is the first time a senior NFL official has conceded to football's connection to the brain disease.

The admission came during a roundtable discussion on concussions convened by the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy & Commerce. Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety, was asked by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., if the link between football and neurodegenerative diseases like CTE has been established.

"The answer to that question is certainly yes," said Miller.

CTE can only be diagnosed after death.

"I think the broader point, and the one that your question gets to, is what that necessarily means, and where do we go from here with that information," Miller said.