NFL Charities, the charitable foundation of the National Football League, has awarded $1.5 million in grants to support sports-related medical research at 17 organizations, including Vanderbilt.
Grant recipients will use the funds to further study sports-related medical issues such as ACL injury prevention and repair, joint stability and biomechanics, cardiovascular risk factors, cartilage repair, bone grafting and mild traumatic brain injury research.
“NFL Charities Medical Research Grants strive to make the game of football and all athletics safer by supporting a broad range of the best sports-related medical research proposals,” said Kurt Spindler, M.D., director of Vanderbilt's Division of Sports Medicine, head physician for Vanderbilt Athletics and chair of the NFL Medical Grant Committee.
“The goal is to look at some of the many risk factors that exist not only for football players, but in all athletics and among citizens with active lifestyles,” Spindler said.
The NFL has long supported sports-related medical research, and through NFL Charities' Medical Research Grants has awarded more than $11 million in recent years.