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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NFL’s top medical experts believe they can take the knowledge of college football physicians and trainers and the research from the NCAA to make football safer — together.Dr. Allen Sills and Jeff Miller Michael Deiter Jersey , the NFL’s executive vice president for health and safety initiatives, spent Monday and Tuesday in Indianapolis sharing data about their findings on the prevention and treatment of injuries. It’s the most formal presentation league executives have had with college officials, and Sills and Miller hope this presentation leads to a broader conversation that includes discussions about lower-body injuries.“We’re able to show them what we’re working on and what we’re finding and how we’re applying that knowledge into the day-to-day care of professional athletes,” Sills told The Associated Press during a break. “I think we hope this is the start of even more regular interaction between the two organizations because we share the exact same goals, which is improving the health and safety of players.”The two-day meeting included participants from the NFL’s health and safety team, the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute and medical staffs from schools in each of the power five conferences. It comes amid a rapidly evolving landscape of injuries in football. Sills is the league’s chief medical officer.Over the past decade, Miller estimates the NFL made between 50 and 60 rules changes to enhance player safety. Members of the league’s competition committee now routinely contact the medical team before considering making additional changes.Plus, as Sills and Miller have collected more data they found NFL coaches and players increasingly receptive to their recommendations and conclusions.Players, they say, are asking more questions about equipment Daniel Jones Jersey , such as helmets. Coaches and assistant coaches, they add, have shown greater interest in how they can reduce the number of injuries at practices.“They (coaches) care about these people,” Miller said. “They care about the performance of them and they care about their long-term viability in the league, and those are all real good reasons to be open minded about how we practice, train and treat athletes as they go through an NFL training season or regular season.”The NCAA also has put a premium on player safety.It has introduced rules such as “targeting” in football, established a formal concussion protocol that includes guidelines for players returning to action after suffering a head injury and adding a section on the well-being of athletes to the governing body’s web site.But the key to success may be developing how to get the message out about additional safety measures.Until now, much of the focus publicly was on concussions: Last year’s statistics showed a 24 % decrease in the number of concussions, dropping from 281 in 2017 to 214.While Sills and Miller agree such work must continue, they also believe it’s time to specifically tackle another key issue: lower-body injuries such as sprained ankles Dexter Lawrence Jersey , strained hamstrings and knee injuries, which wind up costing athletes more playing time than concussions.“We’re taking a very, I think, comprehensive approach to understanding foot, ankle or knee injuries and the contributing aspects of that,” Miller said. “I think, we are looking at the performance of certain cleats; their traction; how easily they release from different turf surfaces; how much different turf surfaces contribute to potential injuries; how we train our athletes, the load they go through on a daily basis or through a training camp and whether that correlates with particular sprains or strains.”The league has invested more than $60 million over the past 3½ years to get those answers, which they want others to use.It’s not just injuries, either.Sills and Miller spoke Tuesday about handling emergency situations when players suffer cardiac arrests or heat illnesses Deandre Baker Jersey , in addition to brain and spine injuries, and they back the NFL’s new mental health initiative that was announced last month.What they want most, though, is to share this information with schools that can help the sport remain strong and safe.“We know that our knowledge is expanding rapidly and there are many things we can learn from each other,” said Sills, a neurosurgeon who worked at Vanderbilt before taking the NFL’s post in March 2017. “There’s a lot of potential for collaboration around the research questions we’re both working on. For example, we have a major research effort around playing surfaces and how cleats interact with playing surfaces. We can look at 1,800 athletes in the NFL, but imagine the power of being able to expand those observations to a number of NCAA athletes. That’s going to allow you to reach conclusions a lot quicker and with more power because we’ll have more athletes.”
LOS ANGELES — The Colorado Rockies will look to close out June by heading in the opposite direction from when the month started and build off the momentum from a wild victory Thursday.

The first weekend of June was one to forget when the Rockies were swept in a three-game series by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In full revival after a slow start to the season, the Dodgers scored 33 runs in their three victories.

Now the Rockies head to L.A. with a full head of steam. They lost a heartbreaker Wednesday on a Giants game-ending home run and coughed up a late lead Thursday before DJ LeMahieu’s ninth-inning home run was the difference in a victory.

With the month set to close this weekend Oshane Ximines Jersey , the Rockies have some confidence on their side as they open a three-game series against the Dodgers. The Rockies will send left-hander Tyler Anderson (4-3, 4.62 ERA) to the mound Friday night against Dodgers lefty Rich Hill (1-2, 5.30).

Even after the Rockies were swept by the Dodgers to open the month they still sat in second place in the National League West, 31/2 games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodgers were in third place, 4 1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks.

Heading into this weekend series, though, the Rockies are in fourth place eight games back, while the Dodgers are in second, 31/2 back. The Rockies have gone 9-16 in June.

The Rockies victory Thursday appears to be motivated by a talk-is-cheap statement from Nolan Arenado, who then went out and hit a first-inning home run in a win that ended a four-game losing streak.

“We can talk about it all we want; we’ve been talking about this since April Julian Love Jersey ,” Arenado said, according to The Athletic. “How are we going to turn it around? Blah blah. We haven’t yet.”

The Dodgers have turned around their season by going 17-7 in June. But their turnaround goes back even further. They are 27-11 since May 17 and have the long ball to thank for it.

With two home runs Thursday, the Dodgers now have 53 in the month to tie a franchise record. They will spend the next two games chasing the major league record of 58 for a single month.

But the Dodgers are coming off an 11-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday and went 3-4 against the Cubs over the past 10 days. The Dodgers have called the Cubs a measuring stick and they ended up losing the season series to the team they have faced in each of the last two National League Championship Series.

Now the Dodgers return to division play, after just six games against NL West opponents this month. The Dodgers are 5-1 against the Rockies this season.

If there is anything the Cubs might have exposed when it comes to the Dodgers it is a bullpen that appears to be in something of a lull. Dodgers’ relievers gave up eight runs in a defeat Tuesday and 10 in Thursday’s loss.

“I’m not concerned about it,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters after Thursday’s game. “We match up very well with (the Cubs) and they match up well with us. I think we are very comparable clubs. You give away outs, walks, we both can slug. You have to play good baseball. You look at a couple of games where they broke it open against our (bullpen) but by and large, our bullpen has been pretty good for some time.”

Anderson is 2-3 with a 4.85 ERA in eight starts versus the Dodgers. Hill is 0-3, 7.52 in four starts against the Rockies.