I think this is an interesting discussion to have. Especially after youth players gotten banned up to a certain age and the data seems to be very clear that heading does have long term effects.
The first question then is:
- Do we remove heading completely from football and change the game fundamentally with it? I would find it definitely interesting to see how much different the game would become. But I fear it would make the game less exciting in certain aspects. The question then is if other aspects becoming more interesting would balance that out.
- Alternatively do we find a way to keep the harm to a minimum? Reducing headers from training and such seems to be a bit of a minor solution. Headgears? That may be the best possible way to design headgears that do not limit players, are rather minimal, but also reduce the impact on the brain.
There may be other options to reduce the harm - but I honestly do not see it. I think the first step should be trying to design some form of headgear and try them out in one or two of the lower professional leagues and collect data + feedback from the players. And yes, some people will mock headgears looking stupid - but that really shouldn't be an argument if we talk about the long-term health of the players while trying to keep the game as it currently is.