The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-22
FOOTBALL RULES REVISED.
Goal From Touchdown VIII Count
for But One Point.

After celebrating for nearly six months
the intercollegiate Football Rules Com
mittee has ended its labors, says the New
York Sun. Very few radical changes
have been made in the methods of play
ing the game, but the code has been sim
plified and in some places altered with
the idea of making it plain and intelligi-
Bile to both players and officials. The
many reforms, if they can be called such,
inaugurated by A. A. Stage and the West
ern Intercollegiate Football Association
last Fall have been almost totally ig-
nored by the Eastern men, so that a wide
difference in the styles of play between
the East and the West this year will
prevail If there are any East versus
West games in the Fall, they will have
TO be played under compromise rules, or
under the old code as ii existed last year.
The only change of any great impor-
lance in the rules as revised by the Uni
Versity A. C.'s committee is a clause in
the scoring code which calls for one point
for a goal kicked from touchdown, in
stead of two points. The change can be
attributed to the efforts of Cornell and
Princeton, whose delegates on the rules
committee were warm advocates of the
reform almost from the first meeting
The idea upon which the change is based
was suggested in many games where
goals kicked from touchdowns decided the
contest. 1t was shown that there was
an inequality in the scoring of points in
this way, due to the location of the
touchdown and the subsequent goal trial.
Frank Morse the eX-Princeton half
back. was one of the first to explain why
the new rule should be passed. He said
some time ago:
IF a team makes touchdown in the
middle of the goal line it counts four
points. If the touchdown is made in the
corner of the field, ii is also worth four
points The goal trial from the first
touchdown being at a point directly oppo-
site the posts makes II a comparatively
easy matter to send the ball over the
bar, thereby securing two additional
points. But the goal trial from the sec
ond touchdown is quite another PROPOSE
ton and is much more difficult to make.
The ball must be punted out in the first
place and then the kick must be made at
an angle. Yet the goal kicked under such
circumstances is not worth any more
than the goal kicked from in front of the
posts Therefore, 1t seems unfair TO
make two radically different plays of
equal value thereby multiplying a diff
Guilty that may be experienced from a
high wind and hard basis for a kick.
1t was suggested 10 the rules COM
mittee that a remedy would be found
in compelling all goal trials TO be made
in front OF the posts, no matter where
the touchdown had been scored. But
this was regarded as too tame, and was
consequently turned down The plan
for allotting one point instead of two
was finally looked upon with favor. al
though Yale objected TO the last it IS
said. i was a matter of short discus
sion whether the scoring of five points
for goals from the field should be chang
ed or not. with the result that the COM
mittee unanimously decided that the rule
should remain as i, stood. BY that it
openly showed that field goal kicking
should be encouraged in all institutions
where the game is played. and the com
mittee did not hesitate in saving that
If any change was TO be made it would
be in the direction of increasing the
value of field goal. Many football men
have advocated a rule that would allow
six points for a goal from the field so
that the branch of the game would De
developed everywhere. They still be-
lieve that the rules committee should
have made the change
The rule covering the mass play Gre
ated great deal of discussion. but was
fnally left untouched. This means that
the University of Pennsylvania eleven
can continue TO use the guards back
interference. The committee took notice
or the fact that in the big games PLAYED
by the University of Pennsylvania. f9ar-
ward, Yale, Princeton, Cornell and Brown
not single member of any of these elev-
ems was seriously injured by mass plays
so-called, but that there were some ac-
cidents in games played by minor insti-
tutfons where the elevens lacked both
physical strength and skiIlful knowledge
of the fine points of play. AS the COM
mittee was engaged in legislating chiefly
for the benefit of the big college elevens
and incidentally, of course for all insti-
tutions in the East, it was deemed adj
yisable TO let the rule stand until il has
received another thorough trial. The rule
makers, however, seemed TO be of the
opinion that 1t might be matter of
choice among minor schools and colleges
TO either follow the rule as 1t exists or
abolish mass plays altogether by an
agreement among themselves, prompted
perhaps, by the members of their faculty
and instructors. 1t was pointed out that
the rule as it reads now has been the
means of freeing the game from many
instances of apparent brutality. which
were common occurrences when the Fly
attack were in vogue. AS the committee
also believed that more improvements
would be made in play after a close study
of the present rule by the less exper-
fenced teams, ii was felt that the time
was not ripe TO make alterations.
The Yale delegate was outspoken at all
meetings of the committee in saying that
the game as IL was played last fall was
as near being complete in style and
methods as 1t could be, and that therefore
II was inadvisable to inaugurate unnec-
essarv reforms that would make 1t i'm
perative fer all teams to waste time in
learning the new points. He believed
that the game could not be improved
upon except in minor details, and that the
nublic should not be bewildered by con-
slant changes that might deprive the
game of many of its most interesting Tea
lures. This argument, which was IN
doubtedly based upon sound Judg ment'
carried the day, ii would SEEM for the
other members of the committee fell in
line and thereafter refrained from IN
troducing any of the many suggested re-
forms.
received q great deal of thought. IL
was the proposition to allow the quar-
ter-back to run with the ball. rms sug-
gestion has been made from year to
year until it has come to be matter
of serious consideration. There were
a couple of members who believed that
a rule permitting such tactics might be
inserted with good results, but the
others. still averse to changing the fun
damental principles of football, used
enough arguments to have the matter
tabled The committees principal reason
for not allowing the quarterback to use
Increased privileges was that 1t might
+and to complicate matters on the field