Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-12-14

The public detcsts brutality and shrinks
with horror when n player Is deliberately
injured.
There are rules enough to eliminate
smuggling and needless rough play. but no
umpire seems To possess the courage to
rule of the offending players. His posi-
tiOn Is not an easy one. He cannot posi-
bly, $50 every infraction of the rules. and
he knows very well that II he disqualifics
n prominent player he will narrowly g.
cape bcing mObbCtl. For example. one Of
the toughest players in the Yale Harvard
game was Captain Hinkcy of Yale. IL Is
alleged that liinkcy jumped upon Wright
inRtOn of Harvard with bent knCsAs and
broke his collar hone. But what a howl
would have assembled tn heaven had the
umpirc taken IIinkey out Of the game.
Without doubt much of the intentionally
brutal play could In stopped IL the lines
man and referee were empowered to watch
for foul plays and report them to the UNI
pirc, who could then take action With
thrCc pairs of eyes watching the players
instead of one, smuggling and intentional
injury would largely he done away with.
The views Of George W. Woodruff, the cx-
Yale player whose system OF coaching has
made the Pennsylvania eleven the great
eleven that IL i, with its rcCori Of having
defeated Harvard. Princeton and Cornell
this year. arr interesting on this point.
lit depends" he says in the New York
World, upon what i meant 10y the word
brutal. II it means the injuring OF men.
it would bc difficult to make the game
much less dangerous than at present with
out very radically changing the form of
play. i understand that mere injury is
not brutality. although il injuries abound
in excess there may be valid objections TO
the game. Brutality, as / understand Ii,
Is the manifestation of personal had tenn
per and the resultant thruttling, striking
and jabbing with the elbows and knees
rC~IIlting from anger. AS far as this i
concerned. rules never have been and
never will be of much value 1t is n mat
ter nf the education of the players. AS
soon rs any set of players come Ia be
known rs good football men they will
cease to- be known rs brutcs in the mat
ter of temper and its display. 1t will bc
noted. for instance. that in large games,
or what are known rs such, there is gen
orally very little brutality, and also, As a
rule. the injuries arc corrcspOndingly
slight.
This year an unusually large number
of men have been carried from the field in
the large games. especially in the Yale
Harvard game ut Springfield Since this
Is unusual one would naturally expect to
find by inquiry some reason for it. One
principal reason which should not be-
overlooked is that both Yale and Harvard
put large number of weakened or injur-
ed players on the field, while Princeton
did the same in her match with Pcnnsyl-
yania. These men were in no condition
to play, and IL was we'll known by that
portion of the public intimate with the
football world that such crippled men
might very naturally, without the inter
vcntion of brutality. and also without be-
ing very hardly dealt with. expect to be
obliged To leave the field Among these
men we might mention Lea, Morse and
Ward of Princeton, Brewer. Emmons and
Hallowell of Harvard and ButtcrwOrth of
Yale. by taking these names from the
list of injured players We will find the re-
manning number larger than usual, hut
not startlinsly 50
Then il seems quite evident To one
who has bCcn ON ono of the four large
teams where the difficulty lies. Take
Pennsylvania, concerning which team i
can speak officially. As an example, we
find an unprecedented season of immunity
from injury. Not once during the entire
fall has it been necessary for n Pennsylva-
MIA player to leave the field on account of
hurt. Those that have been relieved
were never njurcd. but replaced in order
to give tho substitutes some practice L
attribute this to the fact that from the be-
ginning OF the season until the end have
decidedly forbidden all molly coddling'
If the men, all stimulants Of any kind or
any idea Of playing easy in order to keep
from getting hurt. On the other hand, l
have discouraged rs far as possible any such
rough play or exhibition of temper as
might cause the opposing team in anger
to try to lay up any of the men. Now,
as far as i understand 1t, the Harvard
team, which has had the greatest number
of reported casualties. has pursued almost
tho opposite course. They have left their
players in the hands of theorists who know
nothing about practical football, and who
experimental with them in the matter of
easy training. am more thoroughly
convinced than over that good hard work
Is the surcst way to get n team in the best
condition, and that putting n team In the
best condition l. the surust way to prevent
injury. Then the conclusion 1 would
draw from this Is simply as follows: Foot
ball Is necessarily n rough game. frail
or tender man cannot hope to play this
game without great danger of temporary
injury, hut for hardy, willing, good ma
turvd aud determined men there is surely
no such game in existence for the display
of skin, endurance and self CONTROL
''Chan:,rs in the rules might or might
not slightly eliminate the danger of iniu-
~. No changes in the rules can ever
eliminate brutality. That rests with the
players themselves, and IL progress in this
direction continues for five morc years
and the game lasts that long there will
be q code of honor among football players
which will make &c impossible for . man
20 PLAY mean foottail or show temper On
asla ~,shuus Justly Esirirs sss sls'