Much of the long term problem is due to protection against injury on the playing field.
Eliminating the facemask would go a long way towards reducing helmet to helmet contact. Shoulder pads about like what hockey players wear would reduce players using their bodies as pile drivers.
Yes short term season and even career ending injuries would result but the long term damage that reduces life expectancy would be reduced.
I believe there is at least one state up here in the Northeast that has prohibited helmets for girls' high school lacrosse players. They've done a number of studies over the years and determined that adding protection like this actually encourages athletes to be more careless or even reckless in the course of play.
We can't turn back the clock and revert back to the 1940's. Things weren't so great injury-wise before face masks and improved shoulder pads. My Dad played in the early 40's and most football players suffered facial and dental injuries in the leather helmet days as well as shoulder injuries because of the flimsy shoulder pads.
We should be improving the equipment, not eliminating it.
See your point, but believe it is misguided.
If we eliminate full coverage motorcycle helmets, would facial damage incidents drop?
Much of the equipment, if not all, has been designed to reduce the incidence most common in football: smacking into the ground or other players (inadvertently), with head, shoulder, whatever.
The player to player impact has indeed amplifies the protection they wear, and treated as armor. But you cannot deprive the player of protection from violent collisions with the ground, or other players in secondary impacts.