I have my own theory as to why the elites pushed football so hard over baseball (which I was recently made aware has some pretty blatant Masonic symbology of its own). What would benefit the elites better than society pressuring all the strong young men to spend hours a day for years slowly giving each other lifelong head trauma? The science seems to be pretty cut and dry, though anything medical should be taken with a large grain of salt.
The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that this was intentional. That isn't to say that there isn't a place in the world for football and other more dangerous sports, but pushing them through the school system and attaching all kinds of incentives for getting good enough to play for a college was systemic, not just people naturally gravitating to their own interests.