The NFL presented data that U.S.A. Football's Heads Up Football program lowered concussions and injuries, but The New York Times investigation found those numbers don't ring true.
Here are six points:
1. While separate entities, the NFL provided U.S.A. Football nearly $45 million to get more youths to adopt Heads Up Football, leading many to question if the two operate independently.
2. U.S.A. Football launched its Heads Up Football program following nationwide scrutiny over the high prevalence of concussions and sports-related injuries amongt child athletes. The football league cited an independent study, which said the program lowered injuries by 76 percent and concussions by 30 percent.
3. However, The New York Times interviewed sources involved with the 2015 study and uncovered the Heads Up Football program did not have a demonstrable effect on lowering concussions or injuries.
4. In an email to The New York Times, U.S.A. Football Executive Director Scott Hallenbeck said they acknowledge the error and regret not conducting a more thorough review. U.S.A. Football and NFL said the data they derived from the study with preliminary results, which Datalys researchers provided five months before the study was published.
5. Indianapolis-based Datalys is a firm that conducts all of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's injury research. The firm gave U.S.A. Football the study's results in February 2015.
6. During the summer of 2015, The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine published Datalys' formal paper on the study, which did not include the same injury and concussion figures the U.S.A. Football relayed to the public about the study.
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