The NFL demanded the New York Times retract its story from March 24 that called the NFL's concussion research "flawed" and tied the league to Big Tobacco.

New York Times sports editor Jason Stallman said in a statement Wednesday, per CBSSports.com's Will Brinson, there's no plan to retract the story. Politico's Joe Pompeo first reported on the NFL's rebuttal Tuesday, which called the story "false and defamatory."

Stallman's statement to CBSSports.com read as follows:

We see no reason to retract anything.

The N.F.L. apparently objects to our reporting that the league had ties to the tobacco industry. But, as the article noted, a co-owner of the Giants, Preston R. Tisch, also partly owned a leading cigarette company, Lorillard, and was a board member of both the Tobacco Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research, two entities that played a central role in misusing science to hide the risks of cigarettes. Also, the N.F.L. and the tobacco industry shared lobbyists, lawyers and consultants.

The N.F.L. also apparently objects to our reporting that the studies produced by the league's concussion committee were more deeply flawed than previously understood. The league has always maintained that the studies were based on a data set that included every concussion that was diagnosed by a team doctor. In fact, our reporting showed that more than 100 such concussions -- including some sustained by star players -- were not included in the data set, resulting in inaccurate findings.

The statement does a fine job summarizing the primary findings from the Times report last week, which was written by Alan Schwarz, Walt Bogdanich and Jacqueline Williams.

Andrew Beaujon of the Washingtonian provided more from the New York Times' perspective:

NYT throws shade on NFL’s attorney https://t.co/4NkDk3jKeU pic.twitter.com/hfECgYCkXA

— Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) March 30, 2016

Stallman also told CBSSports.com the NFL hasn't found a "single factual error" in the Times report.

Player-safety issues in the NFL have come to the forefront in recent years, particularly with regard to traumatic head injuries. For the first time ever, an NFL official acknowledged earlier in March there is a link between the degenerative brain disease CTE and football-related head trauma.

A study conducted by researchers at Boston University and the Department of Veteran Affairs, per PBS' Frontline (via Michael O'Keeffe of the New York Daily News)—the results of which were revealed in September 2015—found 87 of 91 former NFL players to have CTE.

If the NFL is found to be skewing data for its own interests and as a means of preserving the game's popularity, that seems to go directly against the league's efforts to make the game safer.

Research has been rather conclusive that playing football puts players at serious risk of head injuries, but some will argue that's part of the risk associated with a violent sport.

Until more research is completed, the full extent of the damage done on the gridiron won't be known. The ongoing debate between the Times and the NFL should therefore be one of many in the years to come.