The NFL is pledging $100 million to player safety as concerns about concussions shadow the game.NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter announcing the funding and outlining a new initiative called Play Safe, Play Smart on the programs website.Goodell wrote that the goal of the initiative is to drive progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of head injuries, enhance medical protocols and further improve the way the game is taught and played by all who love it.The NFL has a troubled history around the topic of brain research and concussions.For nearly two decades, the league ran a series of scientific experiments, formed its own research arm and published 16 papers about football and head injuries. The central conclusion -- that NFL players dont get brain damage -- led to public criticism, Congressional hearings and, in 2009, the abandonment of the project.More recently, in May, congressional investigators concluded that at least a half-dozen top NFL health officials waged an improper, behind-the-scenes campaign last year to influence a major U.S. government research study on football and brain disease.The 91-page congressional report described how the NFL pressured the National Institutes of Health to strip a $16 million project from a prominent Boston University researcher and tried to redirect the money to members of the leagues committee on brain injuries. The study was to have been funded out of a $30 million unrestricted gift the NFL gave the NIH in 2012.After the NIH rebuffed the NFLs campaign to remove Robert Stern, an expert in neurodegenerative disease who has criticized the league, the NFL backed out of a signed agreement to pay for the study, the report shows. Taxpayers ended up bearing the cost instead.The NFLs actions violated policies that prohibit private donors from interfering in the NIH peer-review process, the report concludes, and were part of a long-standing pattern of attempts by the league to shape concussion research for its own purposes.In the letter posted Wednesday, the commissioner said that the league can and will do better in this area and acknowledged that some might think the leagues motives are not pure.We know there is skepticism about our work in this area, he wrote. Thats why both the process and the results of our work will be shared with the medical community and the public at large.The program will have four pillars, according to the website: protecting players, advanced technology, medical research and sharing progress.The league will take a hard look at any aspect of the rules that can make the game safer for our players, Goodell wrote. But the letter also says that $60 million of the total funding will go toward exploring technological solutions to player safety. That could include new helmets.Another of our goals is to explore the concept of position-specific helmets, Goodell wrote. After all, we know from tracking game and injury data that linemen experience different impacts than a wide receiver or a defensive back. Yet their protective equipment is the same.Goodell wrote that more than $40 million will be allotted to medical research.?The goal is to pursue scientific research to examine the long-term effects of concussion, the incidence and prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and what can be done to improve long-term player health, Goodell wrote.As professional athletes question whether they would allow their own kids to play football, Goodell wrote that the new program plans to share information with sports families.Our goal will be to equip parents with the best available information to make decisions about their childrens participation in football and other contact sports, he wrote, adding that the league will expand its athletic trainer program.Talk of head injuries has become a major topic in the NFL. The NFL and NFLPA said that they will look into hits that league MVP Cam Newton took this weekend to see if correct protocols were followed.?All of the talk takes leads to the question of whether the risk of playing football is worth the reward. Goodell thinks it is.Long ago, before I was NFL Commissioner, I was a high school football player, he wrote. I played safety for the Bronxville High School Broncos. Those were among the happiest days of my life.The values I gained from that experience -- grit, commitment to team, hard work and how to conduct oneself in both victory and defeat -- are values Ive applied throughout my adult life. Cheap Rams Jerseys Online .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. Youth Micah Kiser Jersey .In my heart and mind Im competing for India, luge competitor Shiva Keshavan told The Associated Press in an email interview. 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Anthony Browns rookie season ended with him sitting courtside in Los Angeles, watching his idol Kobe Bryant end his stellar Lakers career with a dazzling 60-point effort.Brown got many lessons from Bryant last season.Now he has a chance to put those tutorials to use.The 6-foot-7 forward was the No. 1 overall pick Sunday in the NBA Development League draft, by the Erie BayHawks, an Orlando Magic affiliate. Brown was a second-round selection of the Lakers in 2015, appeared in 29 games, and started 11 in the NBA last season. He will head to Pennsylvania on Monday for training camp and what he called a fresh start.The biggest thing that I took away from my time with Kobe was just the preparation that he came with to every game, Brown said. Every game that he played, his preparation was so detailed and so focused. The game is just the result of everything youve already worked on.Brown was the last player cut by the Lakers out of training camp this fall. He was one of two first-round selections Sunday with past NBA experience, joining Travis Leslie -- who appeared in 10 games with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2011-12 season. Leslie was picked No. 4 overall by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Indianas D-League club.Youre playing NBA rules with an NBA ball, Brown said. I think that playing in the D-League and honing your craft there, its definitely translatable if youre able to get to the NBBA level.dddddddddddd Theres definitely talent in the league.A trio of famous sons were among the 105 selections.Keith Hornsby, the son of Grammy-winning musician Bruce Hornsby, was the ninth overall pick by the Texas Legends, a Dallas affiliate.?Keith Hornsby played college ball at LSU.Benito Santiago Jr. -- a 27-year-old who also was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2010 and whose father spent two decades in the major leagues -- went 38th overall, to the Delaware 76ers.Ralph Sampson III, whose father was the No. 1 pick in the 1983 NBA draft, went in the fifth round to the Northern Arizona Suns. He was the 86th overall pick, and has been in the D-League for the past two seasons.Other picks of note:-- Shannon Brown, a two-time NBA champion with the Lakers who has spent time with eight NBA clubs already, was selected in the second round by the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Drive, the Detroit Pistons affiliate. He is familiar with the state, having played his college ball at Michigan State. For me, it makes me feel like Im starting all over from scratch, he told mlive.com Sunday.-- Palpreet Singh of India went to the Long Island Nets, at No. 80 overall. Bobby Ray Parks Jr., born in the Philippines, was the last pick at No. 105, going to the Westchester Knicks. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Womens Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Stitched Jerseys Cheap NFL Black Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys 2020 ' ' '