Yeah. Boys being boys. Football was pretty much organized warfare back then. Throw in the lack of other sports back then, soccer, basketball, skateboarding, etc. Every kid either played baseball or football. Its seems perfectly natural to get carried of the football field back in the day.
The worst invention in modern football is the FACE MASK. When football WAS football, we didn’t wear ‘em. Back then we didn’t need a handle to tackle.