nevermind that generations of people have played the sport and gone on to be just fine."  or something to that effect.  I played.  I got 3 concussions.  My dad played.  He probably got concussions too.  Football is violent.  Concussions and other injries are a normal part of the game.  They always have been.  Ya hike up your big girl panties and you deal with your boo boos.   If you can't deal, don't play.

There is simply little comparison to then and now...the size, speed, physicality, and sheer brutality of the sport is not even comparable to the days when a 230 lb.,  5 point somthing 40 speed Larry Csonka was considered the most physical runner the sport had seen and he followed behind a 260 lb. HOF guard named Larry Little.

And short life spans, the excessive nerve and brain damaged 50ish year old former players, etc. have been well documented.

I get that you played and you were tough and you love the rub-some-dirt-on-it mentality that goes along with macho sports.  And as much as we all love the sport and the "ooh/ahhh" hits that have made it what it is...it doesn't make what you want to be what is.