ATLANTA — Three Morehouse medical students are kicking off their careers with the NFL.
The National Football League announced its roster of medical students who will participate in the inaugural season of the NFL Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative. The new program was created to help diversify the pipeline of students pursuing sports medicine as a career. In turn, the NFL believes it will help diversify club medical staff.
Morehouse School of Medicine is represented by Paolo Gilleran, Eddie Gontee, and Omolayo Dada. Gontee and Gilleran will do their rotation with the Atlanta Falcons. Dada will be traveling to the west coast to join the medical team with the San Francisco 49ers.
They are three of 14 students selected by their medical schools to participate in the program. This class was selected from the country's four HBCUs with medical campuses. The group will do clinical rotations that will focus on primary care sports medicine and orthopedic surgery, according to a news release.
“As an athlete and someone who truly loves sports, I was elated to have the opportunity to work alongside premiere athletes and skilled physicians," Dada said. "This initiative allows me to apply my clinical skills and knowledge at the highest level in sports medicine. I hope to learn more about the field of sports medicine and how best to care for athletes, keeping them healthy and getting them back to what they love doing the most."
Their one-month clinical rotations will start with the 2022 NFL season in September.
In 2023, the program will seek to expand to recruit students from additional academic institutions and medical disciplines and place those students with medical staff at additional NFL clubs.