--- description: Jeff Miller said the broader question was "where do we go from here?" title: NFL Official Admits Link Between Football and Brain Disease image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb9e8e4e1c0d452/6988604c8e06017e23461fdb/brain-health-illo.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Sports](/section/sports/) ## Sports Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Football](/tag/football/) ## Football Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # NFL Official Admits Link Between Football and Brain Disease by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 14, 2016 11:14 PM CUT  Illustration by Sydney Rae Hass for TIME by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 14, 2016 11:14 PM CUT A senior NFL official has for the first time [acknowledged](http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/%5F/id/14972296/top-nfl-official-acknowledges-link-football-related-head-trauma-cte-first "undefined") a link between football and the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Jeff Miller, the league’s senior vice president for health and safety, took part Monday in a roundtable organized by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy & Commerce, where Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) asked him if there was an established link between the repetitive head injuries sustained by many athletes in the sport and CTE. “The answer to that question is certainly yes,” Miller said, according to ESPN. The statement is in contrast to past remarks by other NFL officials. In 2009, a spokesperson acknowledged that “concussions can lead to long-term problems,” but none have specifically admitted they could lead to CTE, a degenerative condition that can only be diagnosed after death. Boston University neuropathologist Ann McKee, whose research Miller cited, has diagnosed 90 out of the 94 former NFL players she’s examined with CTE. “I think the broader point,” said Miller, “and the one that your question gets to, is what that necessarily means, and where do we go from here with that information?” \[[ESPN](http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/%5F/id/14972296/top-nfl-official-acknowledges-link-football-related-head-trauma-cte-first "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4258561/nfl-cte-football-brain-disease/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4258561/nfl-cte-football-brain-disease/"},"headline":"NFL Official Admits Link Between Football and Brain Disease","datePublished":"2016-03-14T23:14:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:53:42.074Z","description":"Jeff Miller said the broader question was \"where do we go from here?\"","url":"https://time.com/4258561/nfl-cte-football-brain-disease/","keywords":["Football"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb9e8e4e1c0d452/6988604c8e06017e23461fdb/brain-health-illo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb9e8e4e1c0d452/6988604c8e06017e23461fdb/brain-health-illo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME.com stock health brain","caption":"TIME.com stock health brain","creditText":"Illustration by Sydney Rae Hass for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/football/","name":"Football"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4258561/nfl-cte-football-brain-disease/","name":"NFL Official Admits Link Between Football and Brain Disease"}}]}] ```