I didn't see a lot of "abuse" of the horsecollar penalty on the field. I thought it was a horses%$# rule at first.  Now I'm OK with it.  Anything that brings proper tackling back into vogue is a good thing.  The equipment shouldn't be a part of the playing, including helmets as weapons, pads as handles and face shields as, well, shields. 

It may sound crazy in context but I'm slowly creeping into the leather helmet camp.  The initiator of a collision should be forced to give some thought to the outcome before it happens.

Trivia Extra:  In my viewing lifetime, the last NFL player allowed on the field without a face mask was a Cleveland Brown.  Anyone?

Mike, don't see the banning of tackles below the waist, though, I will never forget the feeling in my gut when I watched a player taken off, broken leg, after I had taken him down. Nothing different from how I had done it so many times before, his leg just broke. After that I became one of those guys that helped him up, never did it before, guess I just wanted to be sure he was going to get up. Long time ago.

Mike, I don't think we can compare then and now.

My late 80s teams spent time in the weight room, but no where near the amount of today's teams. We didn't have nutritional supplements. And a 6-4 260 pound lineman was good enough for a scholarship to play at Duke.

We were slower, smaller, and softer.

That hard 225 you played at is now a hard 285. By softer, I do no necessarily mean you or I were a pillow, but that the impact we carried and absorbed was less.

I honestly believe the rules being applied over time are not an attempt to avoid litigation, but an attempt to avoid permanent incapacity.

We are in an era when football players will tell you they don't want their children to play football. That is an indication that the game has evolved in an undesirable fashion.

Pete, a few observations...

I'm not sure much has changed re concerns about kids playing football.  I heard that back when i was playing all those many moons ago.  In addition, some kids tried playing football, quickly decided they didn't like the contact and quit. Herewith a related, fond memory: In the spring of my 8th grade year, Mom, Dad and I were sitting around the kitchen table.  Subject: where Mike would go to HS. 

"I wish you would go to St. Peter's," said Mom. 

"St. Pete's doesn't have a football team," I replied.

"I think we should let Mike make up his own mind," said Dad.  End of discussion. 

I don't know if there are comprehensive stats comparing frequency of football injuries at both the HS and collegiate levels going back over the decades.  We do know that football was decidedly dangerous in the early years of the 20th century with numerous deaths, and concerns led to banning the "flying wedge."  My impression is that from the 1960s onward the frequency hasn't changed all that much, if at all.  In my senior season alone, our team lost 4 starters to season-ending injuries - two knees, broken arm and the aforementioned compound thigh fracture.  Another starter suffered two concussions but didn't miss any games (perhaps should have). 

I've read reports of studies with conflicting conclusions re artiicial turf and injury frequency, but I do believe that artificial turf has increased frequency of injuries to feet, ankles, knees and heads.  I remember the first time I ran a lot on artiticial turf.  It was an indoor soccer game.  Afterward my knees felt like they had the consistency of jello. 

Helmets.  Someone posted here that a return to leather helmets might be worth considering.  Never wore one but I'll bet that you, like me, have seen footage from the era when they were worn.  The tackling seemed less fearsome and more like tackling in rugby.

I've held and inspected today's helmets.  I don't see any appreciable difference between them and the ones we wore in the '60s.  Facemasks certainly have evolved.  Most of us wore just two connected bars. 

All in all, as you now know, I'd prefer no additional restrictions on blocking and tackling.

Hoping that our paths cross again this coming season. 

Pete, the athletes I grew up with were fast, smaller and tougher. There were chores, coal handled by shovel, gardens tilled by shovel, summer jobs in the hay fields or on a railroad crew. Hay bales and railroad ties make up for and lack of weight room. I would also like to take todays boys back to the days before AC. Nutritionally I would love to eliminate 80 percent of the "food" in todays markets. Get a picture of any school class from the twenties or thirties and count the obese or soft kids. Most meals used to be from the meat case, garden and we drank gallons of water. Fifty years ago we were fast, smaller and tougher.