For two decades, the NFL conducted a campaign to deny growing scientific research that showed a link between playing football and brain damage, according to a new book co-authored by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru.
The NFL used its power and resources to discredit independent scientists and their work; that the league cited research data that minimized the dangers of concussions while emphasizing the league's own flawed research; and that league executives employed an aggressive public relations strategy designed to keep the public unaware of what league executives really knew about the effects of playing the game.
NFL executives declined to cooperate with the authors on the book. On Wednesday morning, league spokesman Greg Aiello declined to comment.
The authors write that Roger Goodell inherited a concussion mess from Paul Tagliabue but that Goodell took nearly three years to acknowledge a link and moved slowly to address the growing crisis.