After a tough year in the headlines, and with a major movie about football concussions arriving in theaters this Christmas, the NFL is going on offense this fall with Washington policymakers—starting with a series of closed-door meetings with key House and Senate committees this week.

Cynthia Hogan, the league’s top lobbyist and a former senior attorney to Vice President Joe Biden, told POLITICO the NFL would be briefing the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Commerce Committee on player safety and pro football’s new efforts to pay for research into head injuries. The two panels have jurisdiction over sports-related commercial issues

VIDEO: Cynthia Hogan outlines the NFL’s Washington strategy

“It is easy to have intuitive feelings and it's also easy to react to headlines,” Hogan said in a wide-ranging interview about a spate of policy issues confronting the NFL as it preps for the regular season kickoff Thursday night. “I think for us what the important message is, is understand what the real information is out there.”

Nonetheless, Hogan is attempting to get out ahead of an expected crush of political demands for everything from changes in practice schedules to equipment upgrades to altering the structure of the game itself, such as eliminating kickoffs, which produce some of the most violent open-field tackles. Football in particular is grappling with the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a form of brain damage found most often in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma. The progressive degenerative disease is at the crux of the upcoming Hollywood film, “Concussion,” starring Will Smith, and may have played a role in the suicides of former NFL superstars Junior Seau and Dave Duerson.

The NFL has the only full-time lobbying operation run by a major sports league in Washington, a four-person shop that moved last December into new downtown offices about six blocks from the White House, sharing space with Covington & Burling, which is also the main outside law firm for the league.

The lobbying shop hasn’t lacked work. In the past few years, the NFL has come under fire from lawmakers who have criticized the sport’s violence, Commissioner Roger Goodell’s handling of player discipline, and the offensive implications of the Washington Redskins’ nickname. Several Democratic senators have led the charge, from Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein demanding a "zero-tolerance policy" for players who commit domestic violence to Maria Cantwell and Harry Reid pressuring Goodell into taking a stand on whether the Redskins should drop their mascot.



Goodell’s most recent setback came last week when a federal judge overturned the NFL commissioner 's four-game suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the “Deflategate” controversy, rebuking the league's top executive for overseeing a sloppy and unfair disciplinary process.

While the NFL appeals the Brady decision, the league's 32 team owners are expected to discuss how they might seek to limit Goodell's future role in discipline. Hogan acknowledged there could be a change coming. “I think that any time you've had as much litigation as the league has had, you know, it's an obvious time to take a look at things," Hogan said. "I'm sure the commissioner will put something in progress there. It makes sense to do it.”

One thing the NFL wants to protect in Washington: Its antitrust exemption, granted by Congress to football and the other major pro sports leagues allowing their teams to work and negotiate in concert, something most other industries can't do. Although that longstanding waiver is not considered to be in jeopardy, its existence gives Washington lawmakers a toehold in trying to hold the NFL accountable on big issues like player safety and domestic violence. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), for example, has proposed a bill that would require congressional reviews every five years to make sure the pro football, baseball, hockey and basketball leagues are dealing appropriately with issues like bad behavior among athletes – otherwise they could lose the antitrust exemption.

But Hogan cautioned Congress against acting on the Blumenthal bill. "That's pretty much a model for not having a business, right?," she said. "So, I don't think that there is any way...we or any of the other leagues could live with something like that."

The league is also bracing for more scrutiny over all of the violent hits that players take on the field. Moviegoers will get a full dose of this issue with "Concussion," which is based on a true story of a doctor's groundbreaking scientific research into a form of brain trauma associated with football and how the NFL tried to cover up the findings. There has already been controversy over whether the filmmakers considered watering down the movie to avoid angering the NFL — a New York Times story published last week cited hacked emails from Sony executives discussing how much blame to pin on the league. Hogan said the NFL did not exert pressure on the studio, and plans to use the film as a teachable moment.

"The movie 'Concussion,' I think, is a snapshot of a specific period in the past," Hogan said. "I think what we are hopeful is that this is an opportunity for us to get out to people information on where we are now."

The NFL has been under pressure for years to make the game safer. In April, a federal judge approved a class-action lawsuit settlement between the league and former players and their family members that's expected to cost the NFL as much as $1 billion over the next 65 years. Even President Barack Obama has weighed in, stating that if he had a son, he wouldn't let him play the game.

Hogan, who followed Biden from the Senate to the White House, complained that even Obama didn't have his facts right with respect to how much the NFL has been doing to improve its safety record.

"I laugh because, of course, I know President Obama and have the utmost respect for him. He's a busy guy, though, and he's paying attention to a lot of issues, and I would say, he needs to learn what's going on in football before he makes statements about something," she said, citing league-funded research on the issue and a series of NFL rule changes that attempt to make the game safer. In recent years the NFL has increased penalties to protect 'defenseless' players and moved the spot for kickoffs up by five yards, which has lowered the number of returns and reduced the frequency for one of the sport's most violent and turbulent plays. New for this season, all games will be monitored by independent medical advisors who have the power to stop play for a medical situation.

The NFL is also trying to signal that it has little power to force the Redskins into dropping their nearly 80-year old nickname, something team owner Daniel Snyder has vowed will never happen. Obama has said that given the controversy he'd consider changing the name, and Reid continues to lead a crusade against what he's called a "racist and morally objectionable" mascot.

Asked where the league stands on the Redskins controversy, Hogan replied that this is a decision outside of the NFL's control.

"I think this is an area where I sometimes feel that people in D.C. misunderstand the role of the league. You know, Roger Goodell is not a CEO, right? He runs a trade association for the owners. The owners own their businesses and something like a team name is an owner's decision," she said. "That being said, again, part of what I think my role is, and through the league office, is to make sure people understand how people in Washington feel about it. There are some very strong feelings, and I think that it is something that is going to be a topic of ongoing conversation."

MORE: Read the full interview here.

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