By settling with the tort nannies over the issue of head injuries caused by physical contact in football, the National Football League has surrendered the field of masculinity to feminism and the aunties of public safety.

By settling, the NFL has given in to social tyrants in the same way the tobacco companies folded like wooden saloons before axe-wielding Carrie Nation and her prohibitionist sisters. By settling, the NFL has assumed responsibility for the harm the players do to each other. The settlement removes the argument that the players were compensated for the pains and gains by negotiated contract.

These concessions do not close the door on any issues, but instead open even more doors. Since the NFL must compensate players for head injuries, must not the colleges and high schools be responsible for the head injuries of both players who have made it to the NFL and the multitude more who were excluded by draft, accident and contingency?

Since colleges like Penn State are eager to take responsibility for their coaches' conduct, bankrupting them should provide a bonanza of masochistic pleasure to the boards of regents as they transfer future student tuition to past injured players. Taxpayers will not be thrilled to compensate local, high school student player claimants. Insurance companies will increase their premiums beyond the ability of midget football leagues to pay for pint-sized concussions. What town will be able to afford to field a team when the school budget is swamped by personal injury settlements for past players?

Now that the NFL owes for head injuries to its players and high schools and colleges should be liable, how can the military escape responsibility for the deaths and injuries that combat causes — to both troops and civilians on and off the battlefield? If the caring tort lawyers can extract $765 million for football head injuries, how much does the federal government owe for killing and injuring its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Vietnam, Korea and so on back to the sons of both sides in the Civil War?

Once a positive social right is granted, it cannot be limited. This is the decisive battle in the war against men and violence, and it was given away without a shot or a complaint.

I pity you poor, silly creatures born with a defective “Y” chromosome. Society has no use for the costs imposed by the nature of your explosive tempers and impulsive urges. If only the wise legislature would just end it all by outlawing testosterone and finally render men extinct.