I am a bit tired of this nonsense.
Its all born out of fear from being sued, but basically, there have been controls in place to prevent head injuries since 1895.
It has never been legal to attack an opponents head. There are deterring factors in place.
If a player chooses to break the rules, then outside of accidental contact, they are punished. I half remember talk of players suing players in the mid 2000s as a scare tactic.
For all the scare mongering thrown out there by these people outside of the game, it has only served to make the perception of our game as dangerous. You notice there is only data at the extreme end of the spectrum thrown in the press, but for example, if you look at the average number of tackles across the game in a season, and compare that to injuries, you would see a very small number. Furthermore, a footballer would on average have more contacts with the head in a game than any rugby player (From heading the ball).
After years of nonsense measure put in place through fear, I was pleasantly surprised to read this a couple of weeks back:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/head-knocks-and-rugby-study-reveals-real-impact-on-head-forces-at-community-and-elite-level/RZVO7S6UABFVFEWTM3YK3BWKNU/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/head-knocks-and-rugby-study-reveals-real-impact-on-head-forces-at-community-and-elite-level/RZVO7S6UABFVFEWTM3YK3BWKNU/
I had hoped it might be at the start of the end for much of this nonsense. If we are really concerned about player safety, lets do something meaningful, instead of sole focus on the things that might get us sued.