Top NFL officials campaigned to influence a government research study into the effects of American football on brain disease, according to congressional investigators. ESPN’s investigative team obtained a copy of the damning congressional report, which shows how the most lucrative sports league in the world tried to pressure the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to move $16m in funding meant for the government study. The research was funded instead by taxpayer money, though the NFL disputed that they pulled funding when the claim was first reported in December 2015. The report prompted a congressional investigation into the NFL’s role in the study. The report also shows how the NFL tried to offer a last-minute $2m payment to the NIH after pulling funds and attempted to move the money to members of its brain injury committee.