NFL donation helps launch institute on sports health, safety
Similar laws were eventually enacted in all 50 states and during that process, Herring and Dr. Richard Ellenbogen started pondering the next steps in promoting the benefits of youth sports while helping to make them as safe as possible.
The impetus for the institute came more than a year ago when Ellenbogen organized a symposium in New York at NFL headquarters that pulled together health and safety leaders from various leagues and organizations around the world and highlighted some of the challenges each faced in keeping their athletes healthy and safe.
Herring was one of the main advocates for Washington's Zackery Lystedt Law that mandated education for coaches about concussion symptoms, removal from a game if a head injury is suspected and written clearance to return.
"There are a number of ways we can improve the youth sports experience for the kids that are playing it and the NFL thought that being the foundational contributor to an independent institute that can do this work on a full-time basis would be the best possible way to influence change quickly," said Jeff Miller, NFL senior vice president of health and safety policy.
Herring and Ellenbogen would like the research and education to expand beyond concussions to issues like sudden cardiac arrest, obesity in children, juvenile diabetes and other health concerns that can come from inactivity among children.