MESSAGE FROM COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL

Of the $100 million, the League is investing $60 million into the Engineering Roadmap—a project to better understand concussion-causing impacts and provide innovators and manufacturers with both novel research and incentives to develop advanced protective equipment. $40 million will be allocated for new medical research, primarily dedicated to neuroscience. This work is led by an independent Scientific Advisory Board that is charged with reviewing and evaluating research proposals, and recommending projects for investment.

This season, we continue to make changes and enhancements on the field. We’ve implemented five additional rules changes intended to reduce the risk of injuries, especially to the head and neck—totaling 47 since 2002. Each year, the NFL Competition Committee studies film and reviews injury data with physicians, experts, the NFL medical committees and the NFL Players Association to develop these recommendations.

We continue to transform our game day sidelines to ensure they are equipped with the best tools, technology and experts to care for our players. This season, we have added medical examination tents, which will provide medical personnel and our players a private, distraction-free environment to allow for improved examinations.

And finally, we continue to expand our roster of experts. This spring, we welcomed Dr. Allen Sills as the NFL’s first Chief Medical Officer to guide the NFL’s health and research initiatives. Dr. Sills’ experience as a highly credentialed neurosurgeon from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who has specialized in the treatment of athletes, will only serve to strengthen the NFL’s ongoing efforts to advance the health and safety of the sport.

Outlined in this year’s report is a demonstration of our ongoing efforts to both learn and do more. We will continue to seek solutions to ensure our entire football family and all those who love to play the game are provided with the best available information, tools and support to protect their health and well-being.

I’m proud of what we—the League, our clubs, our players, our coaches, medical and scientific experts and advocates—have done to advance efforts around this critical issue, but there is more we will do.

There is no higher priority than the health and safety of our players and we are working every day to achieve our goal of making the game safer for all those who play. The NFL will continue to lead, continue to change and continue to share what we learn along the way.

Roger Goodell
NFL Commissioner

Message from Dr. John York

The NFL’s work to advance player health and safety is guided by preeminent experts in the fields of medicine, science and engineering. As the chairman of the NFL Owners' Health and Safety Advisory Committee, I work closely year-round with each of the NFL’s medical and scientific committees, as well as the club owners, to try to make the game safer and improve the health of NFL players. This year, we were proud to add to our capability when we announced the hiring of Dr. Allen Sills as the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer. He brings substantial expertise to this position as a neurosurgeon with extensive sports medicine experience both at the amateur and professional levels, both domestically and internationally.

At the end of each season, the NFL medical committees meet during the NFL Scouting Combine to begin the intensive and critical work of evaluating everything the NFL does to advance player safety. This begins with reviewing and analyzing injury data collected through the NFL’s Injury Surveillance System. This system is designed and administered by QuintilesIMS, an independent company that provides epidemiological analysis of NFL injury data to both the NFL and the NFL Players Association. It is this data, combined with the expertise of the physicians, scientists, engineers and other experts who comprise the NFL’s advisory committees, that drives discussion and changes to the NFL’s policies and protocols, as well as many playing rules.

This year saw several important developments. The Competition Committee recommended and the League adopted five new rules changes aimed at reducing injury risk. The Head, Neck and Spine Committee in conjunction with the NFL Players Association drove an important evolution of the Game Day Concussion Diagnosis and Management Protocol, ensuring that it aligns with the latest medical consensus on concussion in sport. This consensus was developed at the fifth International Conference on Concussion in Sport held in Berlin last year and published just a few months before the start of the NFL season. I was honored to represent the NFL at the Conference along with a number of the members of the Head, Neck and Spine Committee. Dr. Sills was a member of the organizing group and writing team that published the consensus statement.

The NFL’s health and safety work includes a growing international component. The NFL is an active participant and organizer of conferences with sports leagues around the world to discuss injury surveillance, injury protocols and to invest in joint research to advance sports medicine. And, as the NFL plays more games in England and in Mexico, our health and safety initiatives entail working with some of the finest medical providers in other countries to ensure that the health and safety of our players always comes first.

The NFL’s continued investment in research and innovation resulted in notable advances as well. The GE-NFL Head Health Initiative, launched four years ago, has supported a number of innovations to improve concussion diagnosis and prevention. The VICIS Zero1 helmet was one of the winners of the innovation challenges run with GE. This new helmet led the top performing group in laboratory testing of all helmets worn on field and has been adopted by some players this season. In fact, four of the five top performers in the laboratory testing were new helmet models introduced this year.

We look forward to continued innovation in equipment design through new initiatives that are well underway, including the Engineering Roadmap—a groundbreaking effort to understand the biomechanics of football and spur development in injury prevention design. Similarly, foot and ankle injuries continue to be an emphasis for the Musculoskeletal Committee as they design tests to evaluate cleat performance and share those results with the players. This year, the clubs are adopting state-of-the-art foot-scanning technology to make fit recommendations and assist players in making informed choices on their cleats. Footwear must be thought of as protective equipment that drives safety.

Much has been accomplished this year but our work is never finished—this season and beyond. The NFL’s medical, engineering and research teams will continue to work to advance the health and safety of football.

John York, M.D.
Co-Chairman, San Francisco 49ers
Chairman of the NFL Owners’ Health and Safety Advisory Committee

Message from Dr. Allen Sills

It is an honor for me to serve as the first full-time Chief Medical Officer for the NFL. From the very first meeting that I had to consider the job, all the way to today, I have been pleased to hear from everyone in the League an unwavering commitment towards the well-being of our players and making the game safer.

My mandate is to lead the League’s work on health and safety matters and strive to provide the best possible care to our players. Through my clinical practice and ongoing research work, I will continue to be actively engaged with experts in the medical, research and scientific communities and seek to identify new opportunities to improve the health and safety of players—in the NFL, and at all levels of play.

As the NFL’s new Chief Medical Officer, I am focused on three things: excellence in player-patient care, medical research and innovation, and education and advocacy.

As physicians, the players are our patients—we must always act in their best interest, guided by science and evidence-based methods, from concussions to musculoskeletal injuries to mental health to pain management. I’m a neurosurgeon and sports physician—and this is the player-patient approach I’ve taken throughout my career in medicine.

To build on our body of knowledge and identify new opportunities to improve the health and safety of our players, we must be dogged in our efforts to advance medical research and novel innovations in diagnosis and injury prevention. That covers a very wide range, from equipment issues to detection and treatment methods to injury profiles.

Finally, health and safety issues cut across all different levels of football, as well as many other sports. I have been a youth sports coach for more than 20 years, and each fall I provide sideline coverage to high school and college football on Fridays and Saturdays, and on Sundays, I have worked as an Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant for the NFL.

The NFL has the unique opportunity to be a leader in health and safety. And as we make advances, they will be shared with our players, the broader sports community, the medical world and the public at large.

The League has made great strides in this effort so far. We have a lot of room to improve. And I am looking forward to the progress that’s to come.

Allen Sills, M.D.
NFL Chief Medical Officer