Some of the most refreshing coverage I've heard of football, the NFL, and even CTE has surprisingly come from Freakonomics (the podcast). They had an episode covering CTE [0] entitled "How Much Brain Damage Do I Have?" that was sparked by Brian Urschel withdrawing from the NFL after a CTE study came out. Recently, they did an entire series on athletes, and their full interview with Dominique Foxworth [1] was also enlightening from a business / incentive perspective. He's a former player, and former COO of the Player's Union.
One thing that gets lost in all of the discussion of the NFL are the vast majority of former players who were amateur (although it is debatable if NCAA players are amateurs), who are likely to experience a similar result as NFL players, but without the enormous cash-generating machine or potential future settlement money.