NEW YORK — The Carolina Panthers earned an NFL-leading 10 representatives for the Pro Bowl as selections were announced Tuesday.
The Panthers, who are 14-0 and seeking a rare perfect season, had quarterback and MVP candidate Cam Newton selected along with cornerback Josh Norman, tight end Greg Olsen and seven other players from their roster.
The other members include running backs Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert, guard Trai Turner, center Ryan Kalil, defensive tackle Kawann Short and linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis.
Norman rival Odell Beckham Jr., who engaged in a highly physical battle with the Carolina defender Sunday that resulted in a one-game ban for the Giants receiver, was also one of the highlights among selections.
He is joined by a group of standout wide receivers that includes Antonio Brown, Julio Jones and DeAndre Hopkins.
Seattle, Arizona and New England all boasted seven player selections, including quarterbacks Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Carson Palmer.
On the defensive side, Houston’s J.J. Watt and New York Jets defensive back Darrelle Revis got the nod. Arizona’s Tyrann Mathieu was selected one day after it was announced he suffered a season-ending ACL tear.
A total of 78 players will make the trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, to play the game on Jan. 31.
Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin will select two teams from the pool of players.
‘League pulls money for brain disease study’
A major study conducted on the relationship between American football and brain disease will continue without a $30 million research grant from the NFL, ESPN reported Tuesday.
A league grant of $16 million over seven years was given to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2012 to finance the concussion research project, the NFL saying it had no control over how the funds were spent.
But ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported the league backed out of the deal when the NIH awarded the project to a group led by a prominent Boston University researcher Robert Stern, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery who has been outspoken against the league.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy replied on Twitter, saying: “ESPN story is not accurate. NFL did not pull any funding. NIH makes its own decisions.”
ESPN reported that the NFL’s decision not to fund the project delayed its announcement for months and forced the matter to top NIH officials before the decision was made that the study was too important not to fund.
The college announced the concussion research program Tuesday saying only that the NIH was funding the project, which aims to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients.
Posthumous studies of the brain in former NFL players, including prominent suicide victims Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, showed each was impacted by CTE. It was found in 87 former NFL players over the past decade.
The issue rises three days before the US debut of “Concussion,” a Will Smith film in which he stars as a doctor who discovers the first case of brain damage in a former NFL player in 2005.
