Roger Goodell Says Robert Kraft Friendship Was 'Never Strained' by Deflategate

Among the players are Joe Greene, Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Mike Singletary, Eric Dickerson and Roger Staubach.

Due to open in two weeks in time for the 20th Maccabiah, the complex contains two soccer fields and one dual-use USA regulation football and soccer field, as well as locker rooms, administrative offices, parking, a central pedestrian thoroughfare and plans in the pipeline for additional facilities.

Some of the facilities at the new sports campus, along with the football field, include locker rooms and administrative offices.

The collaboration began when an AFI player recognized Kraft in the lobby of the King David Hotel and told the millionaire that he and his friends played organized football in Israel on uneven, overcrowded fields.

The Jerusalem mayor and a leading philanthropist, together other donors and a Pro Football Hall of Fame delegation, opened the Kraft Family Sports Campus.

"I know how important this is for him", Goodell continued.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said that advancing American football in Israel has been a sort of lucky charm.

Kraft built the stadium in which the ceremony was taking place, in a section of the city's Sacher Park, completed in the year 2000. "If you're not strong, you'll never get peace, and if you're not strong, you'll be in war and turmoil". In the lawsuit filed in Philadelphia, the league was accused of hiding what it knew about the link between concussions and CTE, the degenerative brain disease that has been found in dozens of former players after their deaths.

Since then, the Patriots have won Super Bowl competitions four more times.

"It's unbelievable. First of all, the common theme was [that] 16 of the 18 had never been here", Kraft said. "In that spirit, I wanted to bring the best people here and give them the best experiences in this country".

Leibowitz presented two footballs signed by each of the Gold Jackets to the Israeli company ElMindA, a pioneer in neuroscience-based technology for analyzing brain network functionality.

Kraft said the expo exposed the players to various health issues that transcended concussions alone.