A prevailing sentiment exists that the NFL's current crackdown on concussion-causing hits is related to the lawsuit some 4,800 retired players have filed against the league contending it concealed a link between football and brain damage.
An ESPN "Outside the Lines" report now says that Dr. Elliot Pellman, who was chairman of the NFL's research arm for more than a decade during former commissioner Paul Tagliabue's term, also was Tagliabue's personal doctor.
The issue could be damning for the league because Pellman was noted being the source behind the NFL's attempts to discredit independent scientists and countered studies that warned of the effects of concussions with the NFL's own studies that concluded concussions were minor.
The "Outside the Lines" report found interviews and previously unpublished documents that raised questions about how Pellman -- a Long Island rheumatologist with no previous expertise in brain research - became the authority figure behind NFL's concussion program.
Pellman also served as the New York Jets team doctor, and is being accused of allowing concussed players back into games.
Tagliabue confirmed to "Outside the Lines" that he had been treated by Pellman, but not until 1997, three years after he had appointed Pellman to lead the concussion committee.
"No personal medical care had anything to do with Dr. Pellman's appointment to the committee in 1994," the former commissioner said in a statement released by NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. Aiello said Tagliabue saw Pellman "on occasion" as a patient for nine years until Tagliabue retired in 2006.
But the potential conflict of interest likely will be investigated by lawyers for the players in the suit alleging the NFL's concealment of concussion effects.
"This is something that should scare the hell out of the NFL as part of the concussion litigation," Warren Zola, a sports law expert and assistant dean at Boston College, told "Outside the Lines" when told of Pellman's doctor-patient relationship with Tagliabue. "As a matter of law, I'm not sure it would be all that damning," Zola said. "But if the NFL were to find themselves in front of a jury, the jury would likely interpret this as evidence of negligence. It's another rationale for the NFL to try to settle."
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