The NFL will partner with Boston University brain researchers to study the effect concussions have on the brains of players. The university has been critical of the league's stance on concussions. The league now plans to encourage current and former players to donate their brains to the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, according to the Associated Press. "It's huge that the NFL actively gets behind this research," said Robert Cantu, a doctor who is a co-director of the BU center and has spoken negatively about the league in the past. "It forwards the research. It allows players to realize the NFL is concerned about the possibility that they could have this problem, and that the NFL is doing everything it can to find out about the risks and the preventive strategies that can be implemented."