Is the best way forward to go backwards? In some ways I feel that could be the case and in this post, I am going to discuss why I feel that way.
Today, too many of the rules are redundant, at points contradictory, and they quite frankly put referees in a terrible position. The rules used to be simpler and there used to be less of them. Going to a simpler rule book with clear, concise rules would make the game easier to adjudicate and there'd be far less controversy over refereeing, whether or not there's a “script”, etc... Rules that are clear and objective, not subjective, make it easier for the integrity of the game to stay in tact. In terms of rules, refereeing, and the adjudication of the game, it was better in the old days than it is now.
While the focus on player safety is much better today than it used to be, there are a few things that to me seem safer from yesteryear than what we see today. One of these things to me is helmets. Hard helmets to me get used as weapons way too often. You add using hard helmets as a weapon along with the fact that players today are simply bigger, faster, and stronger; you have a recipe for a player safety issue. There needs to be some really good studies on this because my hypothesis would be that there'd be less concussions if the helmets were softer. One of the reasons Guardian Caps are around that while not perfect, they do act like an airbag of sorts and help absorb some forms of impact. Whether this is rugby style headgear or whatever solution someone comes up with here, going back to the days before the hard helmet is the better safety move here. I could be wrong but that's how I feel.
In addition to the smaller helmet, a similar argument could be made for smaller, softer pads. I've rambled on about this topic before so I will keep it brief, but harder pads on bigger, stronger athletes can have unintended consequences and unfortunately we have seen that play out in this great sport of ours.
Can we go back to when sports were less corporate as well? It feels like there are corporate sponsorships everywhere and it just takes away from the experience that sports are supposed to provide. At worst, you used to have random TV ads in the 1990s of John Madden talking about “Tough Actin Tinactin” for helping people treat Athlete's Foot. Now? It's completely out of control and you got athletes promoting “Prediction Markets” and cryptocurrency scams among other nefarious things. It's truly unfortunate.
Lastly, no more international games. If other countries want to experience the sport in all its glory, they can have their own leagues. Maybe this occurs through the Fediverse of Football I talked about in a prior post on here.
I could go on but I'm going to end this here. Sometimes the best way to move forward is to look back and see how things used to be done. In some ways, the good ole days were always that much better.