While you’ve been focusing on Tom Brady vs. the NFL, the league’s ongoing feud with The New York Times continues to heat up.
It all started on March 24, when the Times published a lengthy article called “N.F.L.’s Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry.” As you can probably tell by the title, the piece (which is worth a read) focused on concussions, an issue that continues to plague the league, along with its links to tobacco.
As you might imagine, the NFL wasn’t fond of the article, so its lawyers sent out a letter demanding the Times to retract it.
But the Times’ lawyers responded with a letter Tuesday, which you can read here, or check out some of the key points below.
“As you know, The Times has a policy of correcting factual errors as promptly as possible. I have reviewed your letter with our editors and reporters, and nowhere does your letter identify any factual error that we have made in our reporting on the ties between the NFL and the tobacco industry. The crux of the letter is the NFL’s complaint that the connections identified by the Article between the NFL and the tobacco industry were not ‘meaningful.’ Obviously, that is an opinion, not a fact.
“… While your earlier letter to The Times called the tobacco industry ‘perhaps the most odious industry in America history,’ you somehow fail to mention in either letter that it was your firm that represented Phillip Morris in that RICO case.”
New York Times 1, NFL minus-30.
Thumbnail photo via Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports Images
