The idea that football is a violent game is neither novel nor new. Indeed, it’s violence that has led to record TV ratings, an NFL network, a multi-billion dollar business and for all intents and purposes, the supplanting of baseball as the national pastime. That’s why the recent attention being paid to concussions and head trauma is so noteworthy. While the concern over traumatic brain injuries is by no means a recent occurrence, as we continue to understand the effects of the human brain rattling in its skull even once (much less several times over the course of a football career), the need for safeguards, education and yes, penalties has pushed to the forefront of the game.

Before it became the economic juggernaut we know today, the NFL was a fledgling league fighting off competitors (anybody remember the USFL?) and cutting corners for franchises to remain profitable. Player health was one of them, and for a macho sport like football, injuries were part of the game, and playing with pain was not just an expectation, but also a requirement. In the early years, football players took the field with broken limbs, crushed noses and of course, concussions. But the years of toiling with inferior equipment on fields that were more concrete than sod took their toll on a number of the legendary players of the past, and the struggles of these aging icons helped awaken the NFL to the physical consequences of playing the sport.

About once a year, I get a chance to visit with Earl Campbell, the former Heisman trophy winner at Texas and all-pro running back with the Houston Oilers. The “Tyler Rose” was famous for his devastating hits on would-be tacklers, and he regularly plowed headfirst into padded chests for extra yards. Sadly, Campbell is paying a dear price for his physical play. Now 55 years old, Campbell has developed severe arthritis in his knees and debilitating back pain. He has good days and bad days, but he rarely gets around without a walker. He can’t drive, he experiences tremors and shakes and he slurs his words when he speaks. For a man of 55, Campbell has the look of a man 20 years older. Just over a year ago, the NFL approved new rules for the treatment of concussions, expanding the list of symptoms that would preclude a player from returning to a game or practice on the same day. It has also levied heavy fines this season for illegal hits.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo to the 32 NFL teams, “Along with improved equipment, better education and rules changes designed to reduce impacts to the head, it will make our game safer for the men who play it and set an important example for players at all levels of play.” Apparently, that seems to be the case. The NCAA implemented new “targeting” rules in 2010, making certain hits illegal and protecting “defenseless” players. Before an episode of KVUE’s Texas Tailgaters show in November, I asked Mack Brown, head football coach at Texas, whether he thought the sport could reconcile the aggression needed to play the game at a high level with the concerns about player safety.

“I think that’s what everybody’s looking for,” Brown told me. “That’s why the NCAA has changed some of the rules regarding football. The penalties are higher, and I’m sure it’s something everybody will keep looking at.” Ironically, Brown’s comments came the same week his starting running back quit the sport because of multiple concussions. At the high-school level, football is king in the Lone Star State. While money isn’t as big a factor at this level of the sport, that doesn’t mean it isn’t big business. Round Rock and Leander alone have added several new high schools in the past few years, and more kids than ever are playing the sport in Central Texas. Investing millions of dollars, schools have hundreds of kids in their high-school football programs, and all of these kids get exposed to the rigors of the sport. I meet many of them throughout the season, and feature their exploits on KVUE’s Friday Football Fever.

Sadly, the University Interscholastic League’s concussion protocol isn’t up-to-date with stricter national guidelines. The policy has more relaxed recommendations as to how soon athletes should return after head trauma. The UIL has improved concussion management and education since 2004, but without the ability to police those policies, the safety of the players is largely in the hands of coaches, and some coaches are more scrupulous than others. Sadly, this is where diligence is most needed, as youths often take more time to recover from a concussion than adults because their brains are still developing. Football’s rule changes are in keeping with other major sports that are keeping up with the evolution of their respective games. Major League Baseball tinkered with the pitcher’s mound as hitters gained an advantage, and then tinkered some more when the pitchers became too dominant for the good of the game. Likewise, the taller, more athletic basketball players prompted the NBA’s rescinding of the Lew Alcindor rule, which prohibited dunking the ball. Now, it’s impossible to imagine the sport without them.

The safety aspects set football’s recent rule changes apart because while they may seem counter-intuitive, they are all the more important to the good of the game. Because the athletes are faster; the pads are lighter, yet stronger; and the coaches are still preaching about “punishing” the ball carrier, safety has become paramount to anyone playing the sport. After all, do you think moms and dads don’t worry about it when their son wants to play football? Such language may dismay football purists who yearn for the days when young men toughed out long practices without water breaks and played through chronic pain. But the realization that those injuries take a terrible and lasting toll on the human body and inhibit players’ ability to function normally – much less happily in later years – has come more swiftly than anyone could have realistically hoped for. Now the hope is that the treatment for the effects of these injuries progresses just as quickly.

Matt Mitchell is a sports reporter for KVUE Sports. For more information, contact him at mmitchell@kvue.com.