oh and the 'research' is quite shallow as I just copied and pasted with quick reading the abstracts, google scholaring articles is a quick process, analysing original research is a completely different matter entirely
I understand that, but the one that you chose to post actually totally contradicts your position.
And, none of that changes the fact that you haven't shown anything that proves the change in equipment would change how the players play. Moreover, it's a fairly dangerous job to play in the NFL, but they are well paid for it and it's not like it's even close to the most dangerous job in the world.
Certainly, we should always be looking to improve safety for the non-professionals, but unless there is clear evidence that pads and helmets do more harm than good, there is no reason to make that change now. Plus, the truth is there are lots of things that are not as safe as possible, but we accept risk in life. I mean, they could make car seats out of rubber and mold them to your body. Then you could put roll cages in all passenger cars and it would make them much safer, but we don't do that because we accept some risk in life. It is up to the individual if they want to take that risk and they have to deal with the consequences of those decisions. They have to decide if the reward is greater than the risk.