“Or change the rules in football. Get rid of the helmet. Minimize the equipment. Max weight = 250 pounds.”
Yep. Get rid of the fat boys. I have always hesitated calling 325 pound fat men athletes. It would change the game, but for the better.
And while we are fantasizing, get rid of the thugs... We already have one professional thug sport (i.e. the NBA).
I realized one of the reasons I enjoyed football much more in the earlier days. One thing was you could actually relate to the players, they weren’t these huge behemoths that you see today, if you saw them in person out of uniform, and didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t think they played football. And because of that it was more about actually developing real skills instead of just being big and/or fast. A guy like Fred Biletnikoff, wasn’t particularly fast, but he was the master of running routes.