City and community leaders welcomed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to EverBank Field April 1. Goodell accepted an award on behalf of the NFL for its contributions to Project 17, an initiative to place full-time, certified athletic trainers (ATs) in 17 of Duval County’s public high schools in five years.
Representatives from the program’s organization partners – Mayor Lenny Curry, Dr. Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Duval County Public Schools; Michael Aubin, chair of Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program (JSMP); Tim Cost, Jacksonville University president; and Shad Khan and Mark Lamping owner and president of the Jacksonville Jaguars respectively – helped make the presentation.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the presence of ATs can decrease injury rates and increase concussion detection rates in school or other youth sports programs. With this information in mind, the NFL Foundation, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the Professional Football Athletic Trainers’ Society partnered to increase the number of ATs in schools across the nation, contributing more than $1 million since 2014.