The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-20
FOOTBALL CHANGES
VETERAN COMMITTEE SUGGESTS
SENSIBLE AMENDMENTS TO
! PRESENT RULES
GAME TO BE MORE OPEN
! EVEN CHANCE FOR TEAMS
Reformers Still Forget to Help Out
the Sporting Writer and General
Public-Report Will BE Submitted to
the University Authorities.

The proposed changes in the Aneri-
can Iootbali rules, suggested by Walter
camp and his committee of Eastern
football authorities, are being hailed
with delight by the critics. The
changes suggested should have been
mace many many moons ago. The
only criticism to be made is that the
committee did not go far enough.
1ear aIter year the newspaper man
VINO IS compelled to follow the plays on
the gr1diron in order to furnish the
readers of his paper with an accurate
account of how the game was won or
lost has hoped for the one sensible
suggestion that will make the game
possible to the general sport-loying
pupnc as well as the Rah Rah boys.
In baseball the players are spread
over large territory Each man has
MS position and with the aid Of
score card it is possible for even the
novice to distinguish the men.
In football the players of the two
teams elash1ng are during the major
portion of the time busily engaged in
aaI at TO build a human pyramid.
The sporting writer is expected to To-
cate all the stars and even the dubs
VINO are mixing their legs and arms
IN this pile of nose guards, shin pro-
tectors and mole skin pants.
New Rule Wanted.
Just one amendment to the rules. a.
new rule compelling each player to
wear distinguishing number on his
pack would end all this trouble for the
sporting writer and also for the man
who enjoys football but has not had
time to become personally acquainted
with the different members of the two
teams In addition to all this the ath
leuc board of the college could help
out the treasury by the sale of score
CARDS. The average football fanatic
would be willing to squander consid-
cradle small change for a chance to
keep up with the plays.
Players, too, should agitate this
amendment to the rules 1t is hard
after making hard run to have the
morning papers come out with the
story of how some other man scored
that touch down when you know or
can recall by feeling at the sewed up
ear that you carried the ball through
that mad line, but you cannot blame
the man who wrote the report. He did
the best he could, and generally, con-
s1derlng the conditions, that was very
we'll indeed
Tho changes that have been ya:s
gested are really sensible ones. It has
been the custom in the past to toss
a coin to select the goal. The winner
took the goal favored by the atmos-
IL.
In the second half the sides changed
from one goal to the other
AS a result, football games have
! been won IN the first half by reason
of the favorable conditions of the
weather. Should the wind happen to
be blowing half gale and the side
with the goal favored by the wind be
| possessed of good punter, so much
ground has been gained that it has
been an easy task to strike repeatedly
| at the proper moment for a touchdown
and win it. If a touchdown were not
+ tried for, goal from field would be
attempted, not once. but two or three
times, and perhaps be made more than
once.
Hard in Second Half.
Naturally at the beginning of the
second half both teams would be we'll
| exhausted by the struggle of the first
half, and the team that had been first
deprived of the favoring weather con-
ditions would not be able to make so
| much out of them as the team which
was benefited in the first half. This
| assuredly, is unfair, for the mere flop
of coin should not have so important
a bearing upon a contest where the
elements OF true craftsmanship are
supposed to be most manifest
The proposed change provides that
when one side has scored a touchdown
and kicked a goal, or failed to kick it,
the teams shall change goals. Thus,
II touchdown happens to be made
IN the first ten minutes of play there
will be an opportunity for the eleven
that was in possession of the unfav-
orable side of the field to obtain some
advantage by the exchange before the
men are worn out by the fierceness of
their defensive play. This rule is also
to be in effect where either side hap
pens to kick goal from field
The second most radical change has
to do with kicking goal after a touch
down has been made. 1t has been con-
s1dered among football men for the
last three years, at least, that alto
gether too much Importance is attach
ed to the mere kicking of a goal after
touchdown has been made.
1t positively seemed silly, after the
teams had struggled for twenty min
uteS to try for a touchdown, and one
had been successfully accomplished, to
allow one man to place the ball to the
best advantage and try to kick goal
practically without any interruption.
The reward for a touchdown was far
too great for the actual merit of the
point. This was recognized when the
rule was changed so that a touchdown
was made to count five instead of four
only one point instead of two
The new proposition provides that
the teams shall line up as for a scrim-
mage after the touchdown has been
made, if not together, at least not more
than five yards apart. To the side
having made the touchdown shall be
given the right to kick a goal from
field, either by a place kick or by a
drop kick, but the side against which
the touchdown shall have been made
shall have the privilege of defending
its goal and blocking the kick if able to
do so, as it would have had were the
opposing team trying goal from field.
This is decidedly more fair to the
| side which is supposed to defend the
| touchdown than any rule that has been
suggested for the game in some years.
1t really makes the kicking Of goal a
| play that amounts to something, and
| will add vastly to the interest of the
| contest, in addition to leveling the
| points to something like a sensible
basis.