NEW YORK — The NFL has demanded The New York Times retract a story that called the league’s concussion research flawed and likened the NFL’s handling of head trauma to the tobacco industry’s response to the dangers of cigarettes.

In a letter from its law firm to the general counsels of the newspaper and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, the league said it was defamed by the Times. The NFL added the story published last Thursday did not “present a shred of evidence to support its thesis that the NFL intentionally concealed concussion research data.”

The NFL also said it will “more broadly reserve all of the league’s rights and remedies,” a veiled threat of legal action.

Times sports editor Jason Stallman said, “We see no reason to retract anything.”

“The NFL apparently objects to our reporting that the league had ties to the tobacco industry,” Stallman added. “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 NFL and the tobacco industry shared lobbyists, lawyers and consultants.”

In its letter, signed by the league lawyer, Brad Karp, the NFL said not only that the story did not establish any meaningful ties to the tobacco industry, but the headline was false and incendiary, and a graphic attached to the story was misleading.

An NFL search of 14 million documents from the tobacco litigation archives found “significant connections” between the Times and the tobacco industry, the letter said, calling those connections “far more concrete than the phantom connections contrived by the Times purporting to tie the NFL to the tobacco industry.”

The Times story – its lead item on the front page – revealed that some concussions that occurred in the NFL were omitted from the league’s studies, despite NFL claims to the contrary.

“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,” Stallman said. “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.”

PATRIOTS: Tight end Rob Gronkowski introduced himself to Instagram with a video that showed him working out and goofing off.

Gronkowski’s verified account is one of the first to take advantage of a new feature allowing users to post 60-second videos.

GIANTS: Linebacker Jasper Brinkley re-signed.

The team’s third-leading tackler in 2015, Brinkley heads into his eighth NFL season and second with the Giants. He joined them two days after Dallas cut him last September.

CHIEFS: General Manager John Dorsey defended the club’s handling of linebacker Justin Houston, who had surgery on his ACL last month and could miss the upcoming season.

Houston hurt his left knee against Buffalo in November and was diagnosed with a mere hyperextension. Houston returned for the playoffs but was so limited that he was rendered ineffective, and he ultimately had surgery to repair a “non-functioning ligament” in mid-February.

LIONS: Detroit added depth to its secondary, signing free-agent cornerback Darrin Walls.

Walls, who turns 28 in June, played in 13 games as a backup with the New York Jets last year and is expected to provide insurance for starters Darius Slay and Nevin Lawson as an outside cornerback this fall.

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