OT: High school football participation lowest in 20 years

I do hear this - but I think the delta v from pads to padless is small, and the delta m of more pads offsets it to a degree to make it negligible. If your equipment fits tight you run as hard as you can. I also subscribe to the belief that the helmets make you more willing to use your head. I played football and rugby - granted my football days were mostly at a time when concussions were treated as a bit of a laugh. When I played football I definitely "saw what I hit" and wasn't afraid to use my head. Rugby quickly made me realize that was painfully stupid, and I played that game safer than I did football. I am a small sample size of 1, but that's what convinces me that helmets do not make the sport safer - rules regarding contact will.

 We need better pads, braces, helmets, face masks, etc...

I think this is where the real game improvements will be made in decades to come. 

I respectfully disagree.  More padding/armor leads to less concern for individual safety and more reckless use of the body as a weapon when tackling/blocking.  As someone who played rugby for nearly 25 years, in my opinion the technique of tackling is what needs to change.  Rugby requires at least an attempt to wrap with the arms . . . throwing your body like a missile at someone's knees, head, or any other anatomy is an immediate penalty.  Tackling above, and now even on, the shoulders is also an immediate penalty.  Big hits can still be part of the game when large, fast, strong people coolide.  Also the headwear . . . something like a scrumcap (what the kids wear in 7 on 7s) would eliminate intentional use of the head as a weapon.  Incidental contact, unfortunately, will always be an issue in full-contact sports.

     The v isn’t likely to change but the m certainly can.  This isn’t original but one idea is to limit the size of the players by position.

     They may not be using PEDS but there is nothing natural about lineman going 350.  The players were smaller 25 years ago and the game was just as exciting and less dangerous.

     A lower HS participation rate disproportionately affects the smaller colleges and those not in the hotbeds of high school football.

The hits got more violent because they still had the helmet and shoulder pads to protect themselves from the impact-and deliver the more violent blow. Reduce the effects and protection of those weapons and increase the vulnerability of the tackler and the violence will decrease. 

100% agree. We can’t re-engineer the body(well maybe somewhat) but we can build the exoskeleton to the point of blunting the effects by both slowing down the players & protecting them. Hockey had optional helmets into the 80s. The football ruling bodies can and should dictate the gear required, make ZERO exceptions and they would gain the lever to at least have some means to slow the impacts. Right now they try to enforce rules that are by nature subjective. Equipment can be objective. 

I think fans would accept these changes without a blink. We did in going from Yost’s crew to the neck roll monster that was Messner. Moving to an engineered pad system with whatever deceleration materials can be incorporated while adding mass as required to get the impact measureables where they determine minimizes damage

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