Turning American Football Back Into Rugby, For Safety

SO FAR THIS FOOTBALL SEASON nineteen players have died while playing, and although the season isn't quite over, fortunately, its close. All of the deaths were at the high school level or younger. Causes range from extreme dehydration to brain trauma to sudden cardiac arrest, presumably resulting from extreme over exertion. Two hundred thousand concussions a year occur at the high school level of below, but we love our football. We used to call it "ringing the bell", and urge victims to shake it off. Actually, excessively hard hitting American football is not new. It was recently revealed that Frank Gifford, who played in the late fifties and early sixties, had indeed suffered from brain trauma, like so many others who have recently retired. Gifford, who carried the football and therefore got tackled often and hard, was apparently subjected to a large number of particularly hard hits, perhaps because he was targeted for being a pretty boy. but its gotten worse, much worse, in this modern era of rock hard football helmets which are being used as offensive weapons rather than protection. Consider rugby, football's ancestor. Ever popular around the world, rugby is not lacking in solid body contact, but the injuries are much milder, usually a broken tooth or a bruise here and there, even though ruggers don't wear pads and helmets. maybe because they don't wear protection, rugby players make contact with each other for a good reason, within the desired results of competition. American footballs no longer are content to block and tackle; now, they must hit, and hit hard. Coaches and parents, belatedly and reluctantly, are starting to respond to this tragic circumstance, and there is talk of "rugby-fying" the sport. A simpler solution is right at our fingertips: its called the "unnecessary roughness" penalty. We use this only to protect quarterbacks; it could and probably should be used to protect all other players as well. a few more yellow flags could well result in fewer premature deaths. the only problem is; where oh where would the American people, hungry for vicarious violence, ever get their fix?