recognize. proactive actions are exactly what parents need in order to be insured everything possible is being done to keep their child as safe as possible while they are on the field or ice. researchers are also hard at work. for sexample, dr. dennis malfousi, who runs the university of nebraska brains, biology and behavior center, located inside the huskers stadium, has been developing an mri machine that could be used on game day to assess a head injury, this could be used to determine if a player suffered a concussion and if that player can return. equipment manufacturers are making changes to helmet, foot guard and other equipment to

reduce injuries. i feel confident given the recent rule changes and the rate technology is advancing, playing a contact sport today is likely safer than it has been in the past. however we must accept there is no silver bullet, no helmet or pad will prevent 100% of the injuries 100% of the time. we need to keep your kids safe while still promoting youth participation. in sports. this involves listening to how leaders in top tier researchers are partnering with nhl and nfl to make youth safer. these are the types of innovations needed to give parents assurance that all possible steps are being take tone improve the safety of their child on the field. i'd like to thank our panelist for joining us today willing to

answer our questions. would especially like to thank the two doctors for making the trips to washington, d.c. from lincoln, neb northbourasknebras. i will now recognize ranking member jan from illinois. >> thank you. this is a very important hearing on improving sports safety. i look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses on both panels about the perspectives, experiences, and proposals about how to make sports safer for everyone from children to professional athletesx athletes are continually becoming bigger and faster and stronger and despite some efforts to make sports safer must work remains. hundreds of thousands of sports related traumatic brain injuries occur annually in the united states. sports are the second leading

cause of traumatic brain injury among people age 15 to 24 years old. second only to motor vehicle accidents. he. we will here hear from high school athlete. his story should serve as a reminder that uj you sports injuries can have devastating and lasting consequences. we will also hear on this panel from an olympic champion forced out of her career after a

traumatic brain injury almost four years. her story illustrates that even our sports heroes are vulnerable to sports injuries. i thank you both for your courage and willingness to testify on this critical issue. proball safety tragically committed suicide just over four years axg he shot himself in the chest to avoid any impact on his brain to allow science to study the brain trauma he suffered over his career. he suffered from a moderately advanced case of chronic traumatic disease linked to repeated blows to the head that

could suffer memory loss and dimensionia. the impacts of brain trauma can become more severe over time. we will hear about the importance of taking athletes off the field of play as soon as there is suspicion of a brain injury and keeping them off until trained by a responsible individual. final will he we will hear from the nhl and nfl and leagues responsible for mitigating brain injuries from their sport. i will like to hear what changes they will implement to reduce the risk of brain injuries moving forward.

we should take reasonable steps to reduce the risk in sports. i hope we better understand what we can do to limit these risks. i yield back. >> thank you very much. this time recognize the vice chairman of the committee. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and thank you for holding this extremely important hearing. i want to thank dr. james johnston who will be one of the witnesses who came to my office earlier this morning. thank you dr. johnston. experts generally agree aa concussion ranges in seriousness from mild to dramatic. the centers for disease control

states a concussion is caused by a blow to the head or body that causes the head to move quickly. according to the cdc, the sport that's reported the highest number of brain injuries are bicycle, football, play groungd activities, basketball and soccer. from 2010 through 2013 the participation rate of children in youth soccer and football dropped considerably. and some have pointed to the increased risk of tbi as a result of participating in these sports. increased spot light has resulted in an increased amount of research in brain injuries as well as research on how to improve sports equipment in order to prevent such injuries from occurs.

nhl have required players to to wear helmets. >> since 2009 all 50 states in the district off columbia have infliekt. this hearing will focus on what more can be done to prevent injuries in sports, in the youth level, amateur level and professional level and i look forward to the testimony of our distinguished panel. thank you mr. chairman. >> i have two and half minutes

remaining. any other member on the republican side who would like to speak with an opening statement. >> does missouri play sports? >> on be-hal of the big ten i want to welcome rutgers. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. decades ago many thought head injury was serious only if a player was completely knocked out, unconscious or suffered a severe contusion after frequent painful blows even a young athlete could continue to play. but we now have strong indications that the effects of repeated brain trauma in sports, even though received during one's youth could accumulate

with consequence that's are long term debilitating and even life threatening. they could stem from minor injuries injuries injuries. researchers have found evidence of the disease cte when examining the brain tissue of dozens of decease the players. new technologies have shown the metabolic changes in the brain associated with concussions and sub conclusive blows. brain injuries in sports could

occur in a wide variety of situati situation. it is a complex matter. requires addressing many interconnected issues. we have to take multi facetted approach on improved safety, i couldn't agree more. we need nor research. methods can lead to earlier and more accurate diagnoseis. better understanding of the risk factors and maybe better treatment options for brain injuries. second doctors lead to associations, coaches, players, need to work together toest ashl lish health regulations, game rules and a sporting culture that reflects the seriousness of brain injury that puts the athlete's health first.

third must pursue a better understanding of how this equipment might be improved. three years ago congressmen butterfield and i wrote in calling for hearings about inadequate testing standards, and economic disparity regarding the safety of millions of athletes. we will touch on those issues today. likely might hold a separate hearing on these matters. the national football league tested today giving recent disputes. on this very topic.

unfortunately the late notification of the nfl testified made it difficult for us to secure players with this. mr. chairman today's hearing is important. i appreciate the sub committee review of sports related brain injuries and i look forward to working together. all of us on this issue in the months ahead. thank you for holding the hearing and look forward to the testimony of the witnesses. yield back my time. >> still have a minute left. if gentleman in utah wanted to use it. >> i might just point out that moving physically and conditioning the body is not anywhere near dangerous as subjecting one self to brain injuries. . >> it's interesting but the issue is we want kids to go out and play. we want them to join youth leagues. >> and we want sports but we

want it to be as safe as possible. >> absolutely. and to use your last 26 seconds, this is one of those where jan and i both i. >> we have deputy commissioner of nhl. next to him executive director of u.s.a. hockey. then we have mr. jeff miller, senior vice president player health and safety policy. national football league. thank you very much for being here. and executive director u.s.a. football. then a face of brain injury within soccer.

former professional goal keeper. u.s.a. women's national soccer team. and we have another face from high school level concussions. with that mr. daily, you are now recognized for your five minutes. thank you. >> i would like to thank the chairman and ranking members and sub committee members inviting me to testify today for the prohockey league. as it's playing surface is kurnded by glass hockey is a physical game. at the nfl level. >> is your mic on. >> it was. our players and fans want us to be physical but more importantly

safe. this including safe play and working together with the national hockey league we've gone to elaborate lengths to do that. we are pleased to share with this sub committee some of the measures enacted. >> national hockey league was the first to launch a comprehensive league-wide program to evaluate players after head injuries. all players are required to under go preseason testing and will have preand post injury test results to determine when the player is safe or returns to relevant base line, allowing

player to return to play. it was confirmed early on that nural psychological testing results had added value and should be taken into account along with player reported symptoms. the nhl and pa concussion committee have taken active steps regarding the diagnose and management and treatment of concussion, education regarding concussions and risks of returning to play before the recovery from a prior concussion is complete have been a core component of the nhl program since its inexception. education is required to all officials. in addition to enforcing

additional player rules, such as checking and high sticking, several new playing rules have been adopted to prohibit contact involving a player's head. current rule prohibits body contact with the head when the contact is orange otherwise avoidable. changes this season. fighting remains a small part of the game but its roll is diminishing. 68% of the games played in last season have been completely free from fighting. in addition the number of major penalties assessed for fighting is down 15% from last season and down 31% from 2009-10 season.

it would be the league's intention to raise any changes regarding fighting directly with the national hockey league players association. ultimately discipline is in the hands of the player's safety. the first of its kind in professional sports. it monitors every one of our regular season games plus every playoff game antonio sure the league's standards for safety and responsible play are being atd hered to. when the department determines standard has been violated discipline comes in way of fine. and video is shown. as we can see on a nightly basis players are avoiding play that's

they no doubt would have engage in just a few years ago. the n the nhl along with nhl pa, are most recently adopting a rule to reduce head injuries. -- the league support and assistantance for youth and junior inage hockey players.

the national hockey league will be committed to the safety of its players. we firmly believe it is not only the right thing to do for our flares but for our business both in promoting participates at youth hockey and by maximizing interest at the professional level. i thank the chairman, ranking members and sub committee members for your time. >> thank you. mr. oger you are recognized for your five minutes. >> thank you. it is a privilege to discuss a issue that is top priority every day at u.s.a. hockey that is the safety of our participants both on and off the ice. we have two particular leaders we wish to thank and who guide a great deal of our decision-making. one is our chief medical officer in rochester, minnesota.

and the other is doctor in boston who is chair of our safety and protective equipment committee. that committee has been in existence at u.s.a. hockey for 40 years and it is an important group helping guide our board in making its decision. we have a risk management committee which is concerned with the safety of the surrounding area. in 1999 we began an organization called serving the american ranks, or star, which is a trade organization for facilities focussing on a variety of aspects including safety issues. in terms of the safety of our participants we believe we affect the landscape through education, rules and rules enforcement, and risk management. education related to safety happens on a ongoing basis at u.s.a. hockey and utilize many avenue oohs to communicate.

we have direct communicate with every home, player in our organization in our database. we are constantly in communication with them with bulletins and news. our coaching education program has long been heralded for golden education. two seasons ago we added an online module which includes safety education. officials play a important role as well and they receive education electronically in our certainty video clips and also in our recording system which tracks penalties to help us assess behavior trends.

over the years our posters have focused on concussion prevention and education, playing rules and our heads up, don't duck program, to name a few. we have modified our rules to adapt on an ongoing basis. in june 2011 we changed from body checking from pea wee to bantamweight level in 2013. nobody seems to like but research on safety guided our board decision. it is worth noting two years late hockey canada followed our

lead. frds regarding equipment. mission is to seek out and evaluate testing procedures for hockey equipment. it is a completely independent body of attorneys, doctors, manufacturers, testers and sports people. it validates the certification that the equipment they produce has been tested and meets the kwirmts of standards and has been an important part of our safety standards for 35 years.

in the early 1990s we were one of the first youth organizations to require screening of all adults to have regular access to our youth participants. we follow up on 100% of calls we receive around the country of alleged abuse and our affiliations each have a coordinator that helps us as boots on the ground to help with safest possible environment for your participants. our sport has more than doubled in the number of youth we have. as we continue to provide opportunities for our youth we know we have a responsibility to make the game as safe as possible and will only continue to grow if we're successful in doing so. thank you.

>> there's nothing more important to the nfl than the safety of our players. commissioner goodell has stated he spends more time on health and safety on our sport than any other issue that comes before him. football is vital in american life. nearly 6 million kids play tackle or flag football across the country. another 1.1 million play in high school. 75,000 in college. whether it is touch games in our backyards or friday night high school games or saturday with college or hopefully plenty of people watching the nfl on sunday, monday and occasionally thursday, football plays a significant role in our life with that comes a great deal of responsibility and it is one we embrace.

we understand the decisions we make at our level and far beyond that. i appreciate the opportunity to share our work with the sub committee. football has always revolved and the rules have always changed. i will like to share the imin fact has had on our level. it's only been a couple years ago that we changed the kick off line at the nfl moving it forward fiver yards. we did that because we identified the kick off and kick off return is the single most dangerous play in our sport as related to the number of concussions. by moving it forward five yards we decrease the number of concussions on that particular play by 40%. that was the first year alone and that number has stayed steady in following years. you have seen a greater emphasis on eliminate crown in our game.

you have seen penalties and suspensio suspensions. we are looking to change the culture of how the sport is played. we are encouraging them to lower the tackle. there are better ways to go about what they're doing and we're seeing results. in the past year the nfl has seen the number of concussions decrease by 13%. decrease in helmet to helmet hits causing concussions down 23% in one year alone. that's not a victory, it's a trend and one we find encouraging but there's more work to be done as we begin to change the culture of the sport as it relates to that. we have other protocols. there's one rule that governs us that medical concerns will always trump competitive ones so we have consultants on the side line, a concussion expert to help the team physician to treat

the players. we have added athletic trainers. to make sure the players aare attended to appropriately. we have mandated side line protocols based on internationally accepted guidelines, we would expect nothing less. we know as we change the culture of our sport we have an impact. two examples of that, one for u.s.a. football you will hear from mr. holingbeck in a homestand, their other offers include changing the game around the country literally as we speak. the popularity is tremendous and the nfl is a proud supporter of ufsz u.s.a. football and will continue to be. in addition, the nfl used as an

inspiration to a young child named zachary, a 13-year-old youth football player in washington state several years ago who suffered catastrophic injuries playing his sport, he returned too soon and he still struggles with the challenges that come from that. his advocates were able to pass a youth concussion law in washington state which our commissioner said we will replicate in all 50 states around this country to make sure all youth sports are played more safely. that kids are removed from play should it appear they suffer from concussion and most importantly not return to play until being cleared by a medical professor. just this past month we're proud to lead in many of these states to get this done. as my time expires. let me mention we have been proud to work with the cdc

promoting concussion materials that have gone out to millions of skidkids and locker rooms. we have invested tens of millions in research. $30 million with the nih, the largest grant ever given. and $20 million have gone out to studying brain injuries. we are also working to develop better tools and find better ways to protect against concussion in the first place. these are on going issues and ones we think will yield significant successes. i apologize for exceeding my limit. i appreciate the time. >> this time mr. hollenbeck. >> thank you for the invitation to testify. u.s.a. football creates and directs program that has important standards for youth

and high school football. we stand with expert who believe education changes behavior for the better. this is what we're seeing through heads up football program which is already benefiting more than 25% of youth across the country in its first 14 months. we expect to double that this year. we advance safeties and lead fun and dynamic and instructional football initiatives for young players as well as a national noncontact flag football program. the remainder of my time will be showing a video of how heads up football high school pilot program is improving player safety within the public school system which earns high marks from parents, administrators in its first season. you will hear how this program is making a difference.

>> squeeze. deep. there you go. head up. feet, feet, feet. eyes up. head up. >> the coaches have completely bought in and endorsed what we're doing. >> elbows tight and high. >> what we really didn't anticipate was how aggressive that the coaches association here in virginia went after it. saw the need to make the game better and safer and they ran with it. >> heads and eyes up. >> the days of smelling salt

ammonia has passed. that is a good thing. >> i think it has standardized everything. it becomes a much more consistent way of teaching the game. >> this kind of instruction keeps my staff in line. >> you're seeing a very distinct improvement and reduction in injury. i think that says a lot about the program. >> what this has really done, we're hands on with the parents, teaching them the terminology. it brings a level of comfort to them. >> i think it's really good that all the coaches are learning proper techniques on how to teach these kids to do it right. >> i'm so relieve they had are teaching them this at such a young age. i was never taught that. zbl zblrz. >> he will come home and show us the techniques he's learning. >> the coaches not only employ the techniques but keep asking the kids to make sure they're doing things correctly. it shows me they are really

concerned about the kids. i'm not worried if he will get hurt on the field because i know his safety is just as porn the . >> his safety is just as important to him as is it is to me. >> it's open the door to now all the programs, everyone is talking what are we going to do overall in a very positive light. >> we agree with the mission of u.s.a. football ha is to allow our students to participate in competitive athletics but do it in a way that is healthy. >> i can say, here's what we have done. here's what heads of football has brought to fair fax county. it's an opportunity for parents and kids and officials to get on the is same page to help kids.

>> thank you. now briana, i appreciate you being here. you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much. i'm had 2 years old. >> i'm 42 years old. i served a goal keeper from 1994-2008. i set a record among female goal keepers. in the summer of 199 my 9 my 20

amazing teammates and my beat the hearts of america beat the shootout in front of 20,000 screaming fans. i made the single save before brandy took off her shirt. yes, now, i bet many of you recall exactly where you were at that moment. it was the kind of event that transformed lives forever for the better. my passion and mission was soccer. my ultimate reward was living my dream and inspiring the dreams of countless others. today i'm here before you to share my new mission with you. my new mission is to provide a new face and voice to those who have had and may suffer the long and difficulty recovery of a devastating brain injury and concussion. my life story reads like a

script from oprah winfrey's where is now. i have only recently begun to claw my way back to my life. on april 25, 2010, my life changed forever. during that day i played a women's professional game against the philadelphia independence and philadelphia and in that game i suffered a traumatic brain injury that abruptly ended my soccer career. that was four years ago. i struggled with intense headaches that were so bad that by evening all i could do is cry myself to sleep. i had to take naps on a daily basis because my sleep was so disrupted i couldn't concentrate and was very moody. i felt completely disconnected from everything and everyone.

i was anxious and depressed. every day. and i wondered if i would ever get better. i recently moved to d.c. to have surgery to eliminate severe headache that's plagued me daily. the treatment has worked but i still have lack of concentration, balance issues, memory loss and depression. i purposely and intentionally had my concussion recovery story documented by media outlets such as u.s.a. today, washington post and brain light dot org. to bring attention to people like me. in november the number of concussions in soccer was second

highest in united states with only american football having more cases. additionally a recent article stated one of two female youth soccer players will suffer a concussion while playing. i feel the number of reported cases are likely under stated and didn't designate those who suffered multiple concussions like i have. statistics like this have solidified the devastating .. e that my presence here today will inspire increased awareness, understanding, and assistance to

help the young sufferers across the country. i am grateful and humble to be invited to give this testimony. >> thank you very much. that was powerful. this is our opportunity now. each of us have five minutes to ask you questions. . . had the second most concussions which is a really dominant youth sport. are you seeing changes within soccer and unlike, there's an obvious top to bottom connection that we heard from the nhl and nfl, is anything like that occurring in soccer? >> thank you for the question. i too was very surprised to read that statistic. i think it is so high in part

because of the explosion of players that are playing soccer in the last ten years. i'm not finding that soccer has completely grasped the situation like u.s.a. football, u.s.a. hockey have. part of the season i'm here today is to shed light that soccer should be instrumenting different protocol like nhl and nfl are and hopefully the governing body for soccer which is u.s. soccer will start to understand our great sport is in danger of having too many head injuries and something needs to be done about it and needs to be instrumented. >> thank you. i think you're assessment of the game that you played and winning that championship over china, we all, at least i remember that one event. >> thank you. >> it was a great game.

now, to mr. miller and nfl has seriously under taken an effort to get the so called return to play guidelines adopted at allstate levels. can you tell us more about what the guidelines the model law that was passed out in washington state contained three primary elements. the first of which would be that parents and their kids would have to sign off on an education sheet, a notification about the risks, sign, and symptoms related to concussion before they were allowed to participate. the second was that a child who appeared to have suffered a head injury must be removed from play immediately. in other words, the coaches were asked to act conservatively. and finally, that a licensed medical provider who has training in the management and evaluation of concussions had to

return every child to play. and that part was done in large part to eliminate the danger that was -- that zachary faced when he returned to play in the same game too soon. and all these laws are very new. i know that there are academics who are studying them to see their success. but i just know as one anecdote in washington, d.c., the one that had the first one, in the years after the law was passed, they didn't see a single brain injury. in other words, blood on the brain of any single football player in the state of washington. and they had normally seen three or four significant brain injuries on an annual basis. those were eliminated. that's anecdotal. and more work needs to be done. i commend those states who are going back and making their laws more strict. because they need to be expanded to the youth level. many are high school only. they need to be expanded to recreational spaces so it's not just school-based sports. and there's more that can be done, and there are those that are doing that and we're happy to work with those. >> thank you.

mr. ogrean, have you seen a demonstrable reduction in concussion instances at usa hockey after implementing new techniques? >> we do not have the same statistical data that i think usa football has invested in. in fact, we're talking to datalist, the same company, to do that sort of thing. we have -- any concussions are too many concussions. what we have focused on is research, education, and rules enforcement. the statement was made in someone's opening remarks regarding the culture of certain sports, and obviously we know that a lot of sports at the youth level suffer from a misplaced, you know, macho attitude. a lot of coaches think they are coaching at the professional

level and they are not. so changing that culture is very, very important. we've been very, very strict about return to play rules. as scott used a phrase earlier this morning that i appreciate very much, and we adopt the same thing. and i think when you're talking about a grassroots sport, in our case, we've got 350,000 youth players and 2500 programs and that equates to about 25,000 teams. one of our big challenges is quality control. you can't get everybody to act the same way or to think the same way. but with our emphasis on head injuries and making sure the return to play decision is a medical decision and not a coaches decision, that the number is dropping. >> my time is over. so the ranking member, you are recognized for your five minutes. >> my granddaughter has played

soccer since she could and now on a traveling team at high school. she's 16. so i'm very concerned about what you're say iing and even more concerned when you say that soccer actually seems to lag behind other sports and there have been studies that have compared the rate of reported concussions for male and female athletes that tend to show that female athletes have a higher rate of reported concussions than male athletes in the same sports. what would you say that we need to do immediately? i mean, i really do worry about her now and what could happen. so what would your advice be to female athletes, female soccer players and to those who coach and treat them?

>> i, too, find that. i think one of the things that needs to occur with soccer is officials, referees, coaches, need to take their heads out of the sand a little bit and realize this is something that's plaguing our sport as well. you start with the coaches. you teach the coaches the proper way and do certain drills to make sure that the coaches know how to teach it instead of just letting players run around out there and let the ball head them instead teach them how to head the ball. and improve the neck muscles. for females they're not as strong as the male counterparts in heading. that needs to occur.

there needs to be an understanding in education of what you're looking for when a head injury does occur. >> let me ask you a question. i don't know if soccer is the only sport where you quite deliberately use the head. is that an inherent problem? >> i don't necessarily think it's an inherent problem, but obviously i think that scenario, when there's a ball in the air that you're going to head, that there's something highly probable that could happen. but i think if you teach it properly, you're going to have those head injuries no matter what you do, just like when you play the sport, you're going to have injuries that happen. but i think that certain things that happen during a heading situation isn't the only reason or only time when concussions occur. mine in particular happened when

i was playing in the goal, going for a lowball to my left. the player came from the right and hit me on the side of my head with her knee. that has nothing to do with heading. head to knee, head to foot, head to post isn't part of that. >> well, i'd love to get your advice as we move forward and anything that i can do outside of this body because i certainly worry about my granddaughter. mr. miller, i wanted to ask you a question. retired nfl players face some of the most serious health challenges of any sport. yet, benefits for former players are not on a par with major league baseball or the national basketball association despite the fact the nfl has more than $9 billion in annual revenue. so, yes or no, does the nfl yet provide lifetime health insurance for former players who did not play under the current collective bargaining agreement? >> no. the players are able to continue their medical coverage when they leave the game, but they're not provided lifetime medical coverage. in the most recent collective bargaining agreement with our

players association, there were in excess of $600 million that went to the players who played pre-1993 and added pensions and benefits. all of our programs are collectively bargained with our players association. so i think during each iteration of our collective bargaining agreements, you've seen changes and improvements made to the programs for retired players, including this year, for example -- this past cba, for example. a neurocognitive programming, screening program. >> i understand, but professional baseball and professional basketball do provide lifetime health insurance for former players. while i understand the nfl's 88 plan, what could be the reason to not provide lifetime health insurance for former players? >> well, like i mentioned, all of our programs, all of our benefits and all the policies are collectively bargained with the players association. so the improvements we've seen as far as care for retired players, whether they be the 88 plan, as you mentioned, which accounts for any player who suffers from a diagnosis of dementia, neurocognitive

benefits, which help players joint and hip replacements, all of those are improvements and made available to players should they suffer from those issues. in addition to a number of other practices and programs, including help lines and our player care foundation, the players association has additional programs to help players who are in need at little or no cost. and those programs exist today. >> i yield back. >> mr. lance, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. miller, the changes that you've made in recent years, the rules change, the increased penalties, suspensions for rule violations, reducing full contact practice days, can you share with the committee data you have that this, i hope, has had a positive impact on concussion incidents that might encourage leaders at other levels of football? >> absolutely. we're happy to share with the

committee, you know, some greater information that i can offer in my oral testimony. >> certainly. >> but the most interesting number from my perspective is when you count up the number of all the concussions diagnosed in games and practices, preseason and preseason practices and postseason and postseason practices. you see a 13% decrease year over year. >> 13% each year? >> 13% between 2012 and '13. >> very good. >> the emphasis has been on eliminating the use of the head in the game, especially helmet-to-helmet hits, which are a significant cause of the injury. and in those circumstances that we've been able to identify where two helmets collide, we've seen a decrease in the number of concussions by that cause by 23% in the past year. there's a lot more work to be done. those numbers could change year over year. i don't think anybody should rely upon one year data as some sort of conclusion. i'm happy to go into that further with the committee if you'd like to see more of the information.

>> thank you. i think we would. this is, of course, very helpful. i hope that the improvements continue. mr. hallenbeck, i believe your schools in 10 districts participated in your pilot program last year and that you're anticipating 500 to 1,000 that will participate this fall. of course, i would imagine high school football is the football that most of us have experienced, either through ourselves or through a child, in my case a son. and this is part of the american tradition. what are your plans for getting more school football programs at the high school level to participate, and what does your outreach entail, and how do schools across the country learn about your program? i think the purpose of this hearing is multifaceted, and one of the purposes, i would hope, is to inform high schools across the country about your program

as the video indicated occurs here next door in northern virginia. >> thank you. first of all, one of the common themes we're hearing, of course, is inconsistency. football is probably the most fragmented of all youth sports. even at high school there are significant challenges. what we're trying to strive for through this heads-up football program is consistent teaching. consistent teaching of technique, consistent teaching of terminology. now getting out to those staunchly independent youth programs. the good news is they're actually being responsive. if it's their superintendent, principal, athletic directors, they're being asked, as was mentioned in the video, what are you doing about this? >> and you are doing the asking, or the parents and pta? >> it's a combination. we're talking to state associations, high school state associations. we're talking to coaches associations. we're talking directly to coaches. we're working with athletic directors. we're working with parent groups, national pta's involved. we're looking at every

conceivable channel to communicate this program and the importance of changing behavior. what i'm sharing is there's been a very positive response. that video by itself, and really the reason i decided to show it, has been incredibly influential. in addition, we now have the big ten, the pac 12, the big 12, the acc. we'll eventually have the ncaa. we'll have all college conferences involved. every one of their coaches will be involved with psas and things of that nature that help influence high school coaches and high school programs to embrace the heads up football program and help change behavior. >> thank you. let me say that if there is one message i wish to leave this morning in my five minutes of questioning is that i would hope that all of those involved at your level of football would examine what you are suggesting. because after all, that touches virtually all of the american people, and i commend the panel for its testimony. thank you, mr. chairman.

>> thank you, mr. lance. i'd just editorialize, that's why we have nhl, youth hockey, nfl, youth football. because it does seem that it trickles down. whatever's set at the top, then it gets pushed down to the youth. so that's -- that was by design. the gentleman from utah is now recognized for your five minutes. >> thank you, mr. terry. i'd first want to echo something mr. waxman said in his opening statement. it may sound obvious, but it's important we acknowledge this is a complicated issue. there's a lot of complexities to this. there's a lot we don't know about brain science. i think we all could agree that the notion that this is an issue that merits significant investment in research is really something -- and it's beyond even concussions in sports. we got traumatic brain injury in terms of our soldiers in the field. this is a really important issue that's complicated and we ought to make sure we approach it in a thoughtful and comprehensive way.

so mr. chairman, thank you for scheduling this hearing today. i was going to ask mr. miller, without taking too long because this is an but could you kind of walk us through the steps as information and research has brought more knowledge to the nfl, how has the league responded and how have you positioned yourself on these issues to address the issues of concussions? just if you could walk us through some of the history of how it's evolved in the organization. >> happy to do it, and thank you for the question. i think the point that you made that the science has evolved on neurological issues, certainly neurogenerative disease, is one that the second panel, where there's a terrific expert lineup, can talk to. but we rely on the outside advice of very well-known, well-respected, probably internationally known neuroscientists to advise us to what the state of thie