the middle period to make it 3-0.The big thing is when guys are getting an opportunity, they are seeing net, they are not seeing a goalie, Lundqvist said. Thats huge to be able to score when you are under pressure for a while and y

The NFL is pledging $100 million to player safety as concerns about concussions shadow the game.NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter announcing the funding and outlining a new initiative called Play Safe, Play Smart on the programs website.Goodell wrote that the goal of the initiative is to drive progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of head injuries, enhance medical protocols and further improve the way the game is taught and played by all who love it.The NFL has a troubled history around the topic of brain research and concussions.For nearly two decades, the league ran a series of scientific experiments, formed its own research arm and published 16 papers about football and head injuries. The central conclusion -- that NFL players dont get brain damage -- led to public criticism, Congressional hearings and, in 2009, the abandonment of the project.More recently, in May, congressional investigators concluded that at least a half-dozen top NFL health officials waged an improper, behind-the-scenes campaign last year to influence a major U.S. government research study on football and brain disease.The 91-page congressional report described how the NFL pressured the National Institutes of Health to strip a $16 million project from a prominent Boston University researcher and tried to redirect the money to members of the leagues committee on brain injuries. The study was to have been funded out of a $30 million unrestricted gift the NFL gave the NIH in 2012.After the NIH rebuffed the NFLs campaign to remove Robert Stern, an expert in neurodegenerative disease who has criticized the league, the NFL backed out of a signed agreement to pay for the study, the report shows. Taxpayers ended up bearing the cost instead.The NFLs actions violated policies that prohibit private donors from interfering in the NIH peer-review process, the report concludes, and were part of a long-standing pattern of attempts by the league to shape concussion research for its own purposes.In the letter posted Wednesday, the commissioner said that the league can and will do better in this area and acknowledged that some might think the leagues motives are not pure.We know there is skepticism about our work in this area, he wrote. Thats why both the process and the results of our work will be shared with the medical community and the public at large.The program will have four pillars, according to the website: protecting players, advanced technology, medical research and sharing progress.The league will take a hard look at any aspect of the rules that can make the game safer for our players, Goodell wrote. But the letter also says that $60 million of the total funding will go toward exploring technological solutions to player safety. That could include new helmets.Another of our goals is to explore the concept of position-specific helmets, Goodell wrote. After all, we know from tracking game and injury data that linemen experience different impacts than a wide receiver or a defensive back. Yet their protective equipment is the same.Goodell wrote that more than $40 million will be allotted to medical research.?The goal is to pursue scientific research to examine the long-term effects of concussion, the incidence and prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and what can be done to improve long-term player health, Goodell wrote.As professional athletes question whether they would allow their own kids to play football, Goodell wrote that the new program plans to share information with sports families.Our goal will be to equip parents with the best available information to make decisions about their childrens participation in football and other contact sports, he wrote, adding that the league will expand its athletic trainer program.Talk of head injuries has become a major topic in the NFL. The NFL and NFLPA said that they will look into hits that league MVP Cam Newton took this weekend to see if correct protocols were followed.?All of the talk takes leads to the question of whether the risk of playing football is worth the reward. Goodell thinks it is.Long ago, before I was NFL Commissioner, I was a high school football player, he wrote. I played safety for the Bronxville High School Broncos. Those were among the happiest days of my life.The values I gained from that experience -- grit, commitment to team, hard work and how to conduct oneself in both victory and defeat -- are values Ive applied throughout my adult life. Wholesale Air Jordan . It is a cliché dragged out by fans and pundits regularly when discussions take place around which teams are better than others. Cheap Air Jordan Online .05 million next season unless Graham and the Saints subsequently agree on a long-term deal. The designation was released Monday after the deadline passed for NFL teams to use franchise or transition tags on players becoming free agents. https://www.wholesalejordanshoeschina.com/ ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. Cheap Retro Jordan . -- Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts will likely be a game-time decision whether hell play Sunday in the Jaguars home game against the San Diego Chargers. Discount Air Jordan . Cote was eligible to become a free agent Feb. 15. Cote helped running back Jon Cornish run for a league-high 1,813 rushing yards en route to being named the leagues most outstanding player. VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Even without two of their top forwards, the high-scoring New York Rangers rolled past the Vancouver Canucks.Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller scored two goals each, Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves, and the Rangers beat the Canucks 7-2 on Tuesday night.Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists, Nick Holden had a goal and an assist and Brandon Pirri also scored for New York, which was without Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich.The Rangers lead the NHL with 72 goals through 17 games -- 15 more than the next-closest club. Their plus-34 scoring differential is also 16 better than Montreal in second place.We have a good team and were playing the right way, Miller said. Its surprising scoring at the rate were scoring at right now, but weve got every line chipping in and thats one of the hardest things to stop.Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast and Kevin Klein each added two assists for New York, which has won three straight and eight of its last nine -- with the lone loss in that stretch coming at home against the Canucks last Tuesday.We just know sooner or later good things are going to happen, Lundqvist said. Someone is going to make a big play.Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund scored for Vancouver and Lucas Sbisa had two assists. Jacob Markstrom finished with 18 saves.Our guys were focused, Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. It wasnt like we gave up.The Rangers led 3-0 before Sutter got Vancouver on the scoreboard with 40 seconds left in the second period. Hayes and Miller then scored in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the third to help New York pull away.The Canucks came in having won two of three after a stretch in which they lost nine straight (0-8-1). Vancouver beat the Rangers 5-3 at New York to end the long skid and get the only points on a six-game road trip.After picking up wins at Calgary and Edmonton during the weekend, the Rangers led 1-0 after the first period. Miller, who had two great chances early, opened the scoring with 1:18 left on a slick deflection between his own legs, off Sbisa annd through Markstroms five-hole.ddddddddddddHayes doubled the lead at 9:08 of the second on a slap shot that beat Markstrom short-side for his seventh. Pirri banged home his fifth off Zibanejads rebound on the power play with 5:22 left in the middle period to make it 3-0.The big thing is when guys are getting an opportunity, they are seeing net, they are not seeing a goalie, Lundqvist said. Thats huge to be able to score when you are under pressure for a while and you get an opportunity and you make them pay. That gives you a lot of confidence.Sutter threw a puck on net from the sideboards that found its way past Lundqvist with Henrik Sedin right in front for his third in the final minute.Hayes scored his second of the game on a breakaway for his eighth at 1:49 of the third, and Miller popped his second of the night and seventh of the year off a pass from Zuccarello just 42 seconds later.Its happened a few times where were a goal or two down going into the third and we give up a goal right away and the games over, said Henrik Sedin, who along with brother Daniel are the only two Vancouver players in double digits for points. We took some chances early on (in the third) and it cost us.Granlund batted his fifth out of the air with about 6 1/2 minutes left to get Vancouver to within three, but Zuccarello made it 6-2 with his seventh with 4:58 remaining before Holden buried his second on a power play about three minutes later to cap the scoring.As a goalie Ive got to make some timely saves, Markstrom said. I did not do that tonight.Game notes Cristoval Nieves was recalled from the AHL and made his NHL debut on New Yorks fourth line. ... Canucks F Jannik Hansen (fractured rib) and D Christopher Tanev (lower body) sat out for Vancouver. ... Sbisa played his 400th NHL game. ...UP NEXTRangers: At Columbus on Friday night in the finale of a four-game trip.Canucks: Host Arizona on Thursday night. ' ' '