Concussion Legacy Foundation

Today, the Concussion Legacy Foundation is dedicated to solving the concussion crisis by advancing the study, treatment, and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups. We achieve this mission through advocacy, education, policy development, and medical research.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation was founded on June 14, 2007, by Chris Nowinski, PhD and Dr. Robert Cantu. Chris met Dr. Cantu, a world-renowned concussion expert, in 2003 while seeking treatment for severe post-concussion syndrome due to a concussion suffered during his career as a professional wrestler with WWE. During the first office visit, Dr. Cantu changed everything Chris thought he knew about concussions. As both a college and professional athlete, Chris had never been taught the signs and symptoms of a concussion, so he didn’t report them or even know he had them while playing football at Harvard. He wasn’t told the value of resting after a concussion, nor was he warned of the long-term effects. Chris decided to bring the information Dr. Cantu provided him into the public eye, and set a goal to change how concussions were understood and handled in sports.

In 2008 the Concussion Legacy Foundation and the Boston University School of Medicine partnered, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to form the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (BU CSTE) and founded the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, which now includes the largest CTE tissue repository in the world. After five successful years, the BU CSTE merged into the NIH-funded Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center (BUADC) and was renamed the BU CTE Center, where multiple research programs are focused on learning how to diagnose and treat CTE. CLF recently partnered with leading research groups in Australia and Brazil to study CTE as part of the CLF Global Brain Bank.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation funds and supports concussion and CTE research worldwide while translating new research findings into education programs, policies, and initiatives to allow sports to be played more safely. Education programs such as Team Up Speak Up and the CLF Media Project are training millions of athletes a year on how to recognize and respond to concussions. Advocacy programs such as Flag Football Under 14 and Safer Soccer are changing the way sports are played to prevent concussions and CTE.

Dr. Cantu and Chris also advise numerous sports organizations, including the National Football League, NFL Players Association, the Ivy League, NOCSAE, World Rugby, and Major League Lacrosse, to create change from the top down. While CLF has had many successes since 2007, we will not rest until we make sports safer and develop effective treatments for concussions and CTE.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation’s work has been featured by the New York Times, 60 Minutes, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, BBC, PBS, HBO Real Sports and many other news and media outlets. For more information, please see www.concussionfoundation.org.