Understand that “at this point” covers really only the last 3 or 4 batches of rookies, a lot of the data on just how much concussion damage is permanent is fairly recent. And even last weekend’s drafties were all the way through high school and peewee football before the really scary data started coming out. There’s been some information for a long time, as we’ve known for a few decades that all damage to the body has some level of permanence to it. But the data saying you could be getting permanent brain damage without even getting a diagnosable concussion is just a couple of years old.
Which is the other side of how this is going to change football. Should any parent allow their kid to play peewee with the data we have now? I vote no. Of course if no kids are playing peewee, or high school, then who’s going to be playing college to become eligible for the draft? Hiding the data 20 years ago put the league in a bad spot, they should have been finding ways to minimize the damage rather than pretend it didn’t happen. Now they’re potentially in a position to be seeing the talent pool dramatically shrinking in a decade or so. Which goes a long way to explain all their efforts to get popular outside America, open up that 3rd world talent pool while they still have enough American players to fill the rosters.