HS football has gotten too soft

if it stopped there? I agree. But it has, predictably so, been a slippery slope. Now its no cut blocking, you can’t tackle guys a certain way.Just a matter of time before it is banned/outlawed.

Cut blocking was banned decades ago in the Fed and we've gotten along just fine without it. What ways can't you tackle? 

horse collar, tackling qbs, defenseless rec.
slippery slope.
Cut block, crack block… double teams ok with you?
I am ok with deliberate head being taken out. Should be. But the rest is non sense.

Much of the time if a blindside block doesn't put the opponent on the ground, it's an ineffective block. If you look at the bodies in motion around that collision, sometimes just deflecting the opponent is enough, but other times, if you let the opponent stay on his feet and fight thru that block, it won't accomplish much. I always thought of the blindside block as a great equalizer where, because of the way the play was going, a smaller player had the opportunity to put a larger one on the ground and contribute to the success of the play.

I used to play rugby too, and mostly as a prop. However, over the course of my lifetime, most of the safety concern in rugby has been in with the set scrums, not the open play issues we're discussing here. And in the meantime they even made one aspect of that game more dangerous, by legalizing lifting in the lineout just after I quit playing.

I love this.  As a former rugby player, I feel the same way (Wing --> Hooker --> Scrum Half).  I think what our sport needs is a huge culture shift, and to aggressively oust the "brutalize your opponent" attitudes...the coaches and players who encourage the KO hits, and who reward or encourage improper tackling as long as the hit is "big."  My biggest gripe here is that most of us teach proper tackling, but the rules/officiating and culture of our sport does not discourage shoulder charging.  It's like we teach proper tackling, but when someone doesn't tackle properly, as long as it's a "big hit," no one cares.  Proper tackling is encouraged, but poor tackling form is not discouraged.    

You can still be physical.  You can still "wear down" and demoralize your opponent with proper tackling and blocking.  Essentially, less emphasis on "hitting," and more emphasis on "tackling."  

Make it like rugby; where the rules give you no choice but to tackle/hit properly.  I really wish we'd enforce the wrap rule, where if you do not attempt to wrap up the ball carrier, it's a major penalty.  Keep the head contact simple: If you hit an opponent in the head, you're ejected.  No if/then, no "what about," no scenarios.  I believe these two changes will fix the danger issue real quick.  

A major penalty (presumably personal foul) for not attempting to wrap up the ball carrier?  But that'd mean you could make hits on other players that you couldn't make legally on the ballcarrier.  The idea might've crossed the minds of rules makers for American football within the past century to outlaw other means of getting the ballcarrier to the ground, but only briefly when they realized you could block non-ballcarriers and knock them down.  Why make the runner immune to hits the other players were exposed to?

I couldn't see making it a strict liability rule to not hit opponents in the head, especially if it's a disqualifying foul, because there are too many ways for it to happen accidentally.  You're giving a forearm shiver to an opponent across his chest, and after contact your forearm slips upward or the opponent slides downward, and you're giving him an uppercut.  You're making a shoulder block, intending to hit in the armpit, shoulder, or chest area, and the opponent dips lower than you'd anticipated.  You're straight-arming with an open palm, and get the opponent on the helmet.

That's a difference between our attitudes.  I like seeing the ones that couldn't block a soul otherwise get their chance and take advantage.