Boston University will partner with the NFL to encourage current and former players to donate their brains for research, according to an Associated Press report in late December.

The plans were announced despite the fact that researchers at the BU Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy have been critical of the NFL’s stance on concussions.

Researchers at the center have found a connection between multiple head traumas and brain damage in athletes in many different sports.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello spoke to the AP, saying the league will commit to donating $1 million or more to the center for further research focuses on best practices for concussion prevention and management.

‘It’s huge that the NFL actively gets behind this research,’ Center Co-Director Robert Cantu said to the AP. ‘It forwards the research. It allows players to realize the NFL is concerned about the possibility that they could have this problem, and that the NFL is doing everything it can to find out about the risks and the preventive strategies that can be implemented.’

Look for further coverage in upcoming issues of The Daily Free Press