THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 SPORTS NFL doctor sends a strong response to House report SEATTLE: The co-chairman of the NFL’s “To be clear, I am not and never have head, neck and spine committee has sent a been paid by the NFL nor have I ever letter to Congress stressing that he was not received funding through the research contacted by a committee handling a grant dollars in question,” he said. “I am a report during a government study on the physician on the front lines of this issue, link between football and brain disease. treating kids and counseling parents every That study concluded that NFL officials day on understanding concussions and improperly sought to influence the process. repetitive head injury. I feel passionately Dr Richard Ellenbogen wrote Tuesday to that there is urgent work ahead to fill the New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone to note that tremendous gap in funding and support claims he and others tried to influence a on this issue.” National Institutes of Health grant selection One section of the congressional report are inaccurate. Ellenbogen called not dealt directly with Ellenbogen. “Dr being interviewed a “basic lack of fairness” Ellenbogen is a primary example of the and a “maligning without so much as the conflicts of interest between his role as a courtesy of a direct question to me by your researcher and his role as an NFL adviser,” staff.” Pallone said the league tried to the study said. “He had been part of a strong-arm the NIH into taking the project group that applied for the $16 million away from a researcher who the NFL feared grant. After his group was not selected, Dr. was biased. Ellenbogen became one of the NFL’s pri- According to the study, the NFL had mary advocates in expressing concerns sur- agreed to donate $30 million to the NIH to rounding the process with the BU grant fund brain research, but backed out after selection.” the institutes went ahead with a $16 mil- Some of the members of the NFL’s Head, lion grant to prominent Boston University Neck and Spine Committee who opposed researcher Robert Stern. He’s a leading Stern had also sought the grant, the study expert on the link between football and said. The league acknowledged Monday it brain diseases such as chronic traumatic had raised concerns about the study and a encephalopathy. Taxpayers are instead potential conflict of interest involving bearing the cost. The NFL denied Pallone’s Stern. But NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy findings. While defending himself, said the NFL had communicated its con- Ellenbogen, chairman of the University of cerns through appropriate channels. It not- Washington Department of Neurological ed that the league stands behind its $30 Surgery, criticized the study as counterpro- million promise and that the government ductive in efforts to understand the long- ultimately made the decision on funding term risks of traumatic brain injury. the study in question. —AP PARIS: Britain’s Andy Murray, left, shakes hands with France’s Mathias Bourgue after their second round match of the French Open tennis tour- nament at the Roland Garros stadium. — AP Gamers strive to go mainstream in new Turner-backed league Murray survives fresh ATLANTA: They stare at their computer the map,” Barry said. “Therefore, you’re in the screens, eyes transfixed on the bloody specta- mind, in the psyche of the players. So you can five-set Paris battle cle in front of them, trying to figure out if tell when he’s going to come around the cor- there’s an enemy player just around the cor- ner. You can go, ‘Wait, if he comes around that ner. They go by names such as FalleN, TACO corner, he’s going to get blown away.’” PARIS: Second seed Andy Murray survived his defeated Australian wildcard Jordan Thompson Myrtille Georges 6-2, 6-0 and next tackles and Spunj - stars of the online world, if not to That description raises one of the poten- second successive five-set French Open battle to 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (4/7), 12-10 in a four Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer. Sixth seed Simona those who prefer their sports be played on tial stumbling blocks to ELEAGUE becoming a reach the third round yesterday, avoiding what and a half hour marathon, unleashing 41 aces Halep, the losing finalist to Maria Sharapova in actual fields. widely viewed hit. The game is quite violent, would have been his worst Grand Slam loss in and 102 winners. 2014, came back from 4-1 down in the first set to Yet when it’s over, after the powerhouse portraying players armed with a wide array of eight years. Murray, three times a semi-finalist, Karlovic is the oldest man in the French Open beat Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-6 (7/5), 6-2. Brazilian team known as Luminosity scores bombs and high-powered weaponry trying wore down France’s world number 164 Mathias third round since 38-year-old Jimmy Connors in Halep, 24, will next face Japan’s Naomi Osaka, the final two points to survive an overtime to kill each other off over and over again in a Bourgue, who had never won a tour-level match 1991. Defending champion and third seed Stan the world 101 who has reached the third round thriller against the underdog outfit from series of lightning-quick rounds, all while before this week, 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and goes Wawrinka defeated New York-born Taro Daniel at a major for the second successive time having Down Under that goes by Renegade, it sort of switching back and forth between terrorist on to face 37-year-old Ivo Karlovic for a place in of Japan 7-6 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4 and goes on to face also enjoyed a run to the last 32 in Australia. feels like LeBron just hit a game-winning shot and counter-terrorist roles. “There’s a head the last 16. After coming back from two sets to France’s Jeremy Chardy. “When you play a French Osaka, 18, knocked out 34-year-old Mirjana at the buzzer. shot!” the announcer screamed after an espe- love down to beat Radek Stepanek, also 37, in player in Paris, it is always a bit different because Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-3 which would have been a For those who play video games, this is cially bloody kill, quickly providing the essen- the first round in a tie played over two days, the the French are at home,” said Wawrinka of relief to Halep who lost to the world number 52 another attempt at going mainstream. The tial core of the game. British star had looked down and out once again Chardy who he has beaten all four times they Croatian at the French Open last year and US ELEAGUE kicked off Tuesday at a high-tech yesterday. After pocketing the third set, 22-year- have met. Japan’s fifth seed Kei Nishikori, a quar- Open in 2014. studio right next door to the set of “Inside the Misogynistic attitudes old Bourgue, reduced to tears by the end, had ter-finalist in 2015, coasted into the last 32 with Petra Kvitova, the 10th seed, saw off Taiwan’s NBA,” a joint venture between Turner Sports Then there’s a larger issue plaguing the break points for a 1-0 lead in the fourth. But once a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Russia’s Andrey Su-Wei Hsieh 6-4, 6-1 in a much more comfort- and IMG that features 24 teams from around gamer community, the misogynistic attitudes they were squandered, the Frenchman’s chal- Kuznetsov. Nishikori, the 2014 US Open runner- able outing than her opener against Danka the world, playing the war-like game and downright nastiness expressed toward lenge quickly wilted as the physically stronger up, goes on to face former world number seven Kovinic where she had been just two points Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for some female players in the male-dominated world. Murray raced away with 12 of the last 15 games. Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Australian 17th away from defeat. Kvitova, a semi-finalist in $1.4 million in prize money. Tellingly, there are no women on any of the “He was excellent today. He dictated the seed Nick Kyrgios needed just 70 minutes to 2012, next faces Shelby Rogers of the United teams. Christina Alejandre, vice president of points and made me run. He’s going to have a beat Dutch lucky loser Igor Sijsling 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. States. Russian 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, Highs stakes eSports at Turner, hopes to change that. fantastic future,” said Murray after escaping what the 2009 champion, was too strong for Britain’s The stakes are even higher for those who “ESports is one of the only sports out there would have been his worst loss at the majors Kyrgios, Gasquet meet again Heather Watson winning 6-1, 6-3. believe a bunch of headset-wearing guys sit- where it’s a level playing field from the get-go since a first round exit at the 2008 Australian He will now meet French ninth seed Richard Kuznetsova will now face Fed Cup teammate ting at computer consoles clicking a mouse for males and females,” she said. “However, Open. “At the end of the third set, I just thought Gasquet who defeated fellow former boys cham- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who saw off Cagla can carve out their place alongside those females haven’t had a chance to really com- ‘what happened?’.