Some people do like the contact however and thrive in the game. That's all well and good for them. If they make it to the professional level, they get lots of money and they earn every penny of it. Even if they don't make it to the pros, you can usually get a college scholarship out of it and they deserve that as well - especially considering the amount of $$$ those college football games bring to the schools.
That all said, there is a downside in that many players come out of the game with broken bodies and/or brain damage due to all the concussions. That is the risk you take to get a shot at the big bucks.
I'm not sure how you make the game safer for players without making it virtually unwatchable for everybody else. It would be like trying to make NASCAR safer by making the speed limit 45 mph and encasing the cars in bubble wrap. Who would want to watch that?
I think the biggest problem is that the padding is too good. You don’t have the same sort of injuries and concussions in Rugby (another rough and dangerous sport) primarily because they have less padding, and tackle differently. My guess is if you went back to leather helmets and shoulder pads, the concussion problem would go down dramatically after the first year it was implemented.
“encasing the cars in bubble wrap.”
Well, all cars are now designed to absorb and spread out the energy of a collision. Could a better helmut design help in the same way? I don’t watch football anymore, as I live in Cleveland. But I listen to Bob Golic on WNIR Talk Radio.