All of your points, aside from some slightly askew o my beansprout, Pete, are spot-on veracious——although you may not have to worry as much if the money spent on satisfying [noir backroom handshakes, platinum parachutes, & exploitation] were spent to design football helmets for all levels of the game out of the same science/materials that NASCAR, Grand Prix, & the Air Force use in their crash helmets.

Many leagues pee-wee on up are still using the excellent (but perhaps still inadequate) Bike (Air) and Riddell, some using Schutt I imagine. Same gear we used as students.

If you ever caught a football in the flat and taken a hit from a defensive safety at full on smart-missile velocity, taken down to a practiced fall hard and yet conditioned for it, then got up and shook it off with a grin, then you know it in your soul that you will get up, slap hands, and line up to do it again. It’s a blast. I’m too old for it now but still I’d struggle to say no. & that’s often dust-bowl-pick-up-tackle-football no pads …still it’s worth the aches and bruises.

But I hear ya, mate. It’s a tough area of the human animal. There are a whole lotta soldiers woulda made it home alive if provided more advanced gear as well. Had a DI long time ago, said: “In the field this helmet ‘ll treat your head a lot better as a shaving pot than it ever will as a tin pot over your brain housing group…so don’t put much credence in it. Keep it outta line o’ fire.”

Long as you’re swimmin’, Peter. Just as long as you’re swimming.