Game Changers Off the Playing Field

The people who just might be able to save the sport of football from its own self-destructive ways don’t wear whistles or hold clipboards. They don’t file lawsuits, and they don’t dole out suspensions for helmet-to-helmet hits. Instead, they tend to wear lab coats. They might spend their days poking and prodding mice, interviewing patients involved in a study, or gathering data and obsessing over it. Some of them are men, and others are women. Some of them follow football closely, while others couldn’t tell you the difference between Peyton Manning and Peyton Hillis.