CBSSports.com last weekend completed a comprehensive preview of the college football season from the standpoint of player safety issues. The series was mainly written by columnist Dennis Dodd, who offered a variety of topics, including a Q&A with NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline on the risk facing players.
Dodd completed the series by telling readers that college and pro football have to change for the safety of the players and the long-term health of the game. He said the anti-safety faction that believes the rule changes will ruin football is off mark.
Dodd sees four aspects of the game in the future: elimination of kickoffs, smaller and faster players, players monitored during games with GPS devices or through sensors caps and practices that will include far less contact. He said college programs that don't adapt with coaches and physicians will fail.
-- Bill Bradley, contributing editor