Oh Great :D I practice American football for 5 years now and I had one small concussion, nothing special :D Today we have much better helmets than before, but still this sport is rough and any small wrong move and you could injure yourself or your opponent...
Learning about techniques is so important and knowing that there's a chance for this to happen to anyone will bring us much closer to safety...
Awareness and education are paramount to safety. The risk is high in so many sports especially with how big and fast players are today. Collisions happen as such high velocities now that the force on the head is stronger. I personally think this is why the number of concussions being diagnosed is increasing each year. That and the fact that more athletes are being honest about their symptoms and not trying to deceive doctors so they can play.
Yap, It's easy that NFL paid players before to keep their mouth shut, that could be an option... Now players are much more realizing that without them there would be no NFL, so they raise their voice for some concerns...
I hope they will start to regulate players and their steroids and other PEDs usage, because I think this is also one of the factors why more and more injuries we have... It's just not healthy...