“The NFL’s top health and safety officer acknowledged Monday there is a link between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE — the first time a senior league official has conceded football’s connection to the devastating brain disease,” ESPN reports.

Jeff Miller, the league’s senior VP for health and safety, made the connection in response to a question from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., during a roundtable discussion focusing on concussions, convened by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce. Schakowsky asked whether a link had been established between football and neurodegenerative diseases such as CTE.

Said Miller: “The answer to that question is certainly yes.”

“He said he based his assessment on the work of Dr. Ann McKee, a Boston University neuropathologist who has diagnosed CTE in the brains of 176 people, including those of 90 of 94 former NFL players. The disease can only be diagnosed after death,” ESPN reports.