Thank you for "Football after Beyonce" (Commentary, Friday) by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., who is making clear to us all that the new trend to make football less dangerous is a marker of "the feminization of America."
My deeper worry is that the project might create a demand of another trillion-dollar "stimulus" like Obamacare. Indeed, I expect that it would be easy to find fertile minds bent on spending grotesque amounts of money on new equipment, research, etc. In reality, the escalation of violence on the football field is similar to the escalation on the battlefield between protective devices and offensive weapons. The more defensive protections are perfected, the more destructive offensive devices have to become in order to keep up. There is no end in sight and no closing of the money spigot.
As with Obamacare and the desire to provide insurance to the population, there is a solution to football's violence problem, that is more effective, cheaper, smarter and more democratic. It consists of simplifying the game, turning it back to its British roots of rugby, and changing the rules: Only the player with the ball may be targeted. Rugby players are no sissies, and they are not all covered with padding or helmets that are formidable weapons in themselves.
JEAN-FRANCOIS ORSINI
Washington
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