The plot continues to thicken in the ongoing dispute between the National Football League and former athletes who claim that the league failed to warn them of the long-term health risks of repeated head injuries. MapLight, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to “revealing money’s influence on politics,” recently released findings that since 2008, the NFL political action committee has donated $292,000 to 41 of the 52 members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In December, the Committee announced that beginning in 2016, it would “commence a broad review of [concussion injuries] and their implications.” The investigation has already drawn significant attention; less than two weeks ago during a roundtable meeting held by the Committee, when asked if he believed there was a link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the NFL’s Senior Vice President for Health and Public Safety replied “[t]he answer to that question is certainly yes.” This was seen by many as the first time the NFL has acknowledged such a connection.
Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), the committee member responsible for that question is one of eleven members who have not received any contributions from the NFL. The committee chairman however, Frank Upton (R-Michigan), has received $25,000. The Committee’s highest ranking member, Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey), has also received $8,500.