New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-29
FOR THE OPEN GAME.
Harvard Man Suggests Some NoUel
Football Rules.

Tn an o,ar letter TO Walter Camp, chairman of
the football rules committee at New-Haven. James
Mott HaIlowell. Harvard graduate and Boston
LAWYER makes some suggestions of change in foot
ball rules with idea of securing the open method
of play The letter appears in The Boston Herald"
this morning. 1t says in part:
Rouoblv erouped the faults with the present col
lege game as voiced by current criticism, are as
First-The element of concentrated brute force
is allowed to play T6@ edT now Of PaT1 m
coach is to WELD eleven men together into a COM
BY the quarterback the most vulnerable points
in the opponents defence The team which In It's
can win nine times out of ten. .o
Second-This mammizing the element OF brute
force limits the possible players on an eleven with
the exception Of few positionsl to comparative
those weighted down with the most beef The
light active, why man, whose brilliant tackling,
has little place in the modern rush line.
the yae OF nn% SO OF undy
emphasized and the supply of requisite maf erad
thereby on an undesirable feature which now ex-
lists to great extent, to wit. on efforts TO rake
try for suitable r3ate-ial. ,.....
6 this d3 TGd the
yates who are selected TO form part OF inc ma
upon it wholly disproportionate to the importance
it is now almost an athletic business o.,,oa
is so massed that it becomes stupid and uninter
esting ! sti remember with thrills of delight, al
though hacker of the Crimson, the days when
Snake Ames and your own white haired Laurie
Bliss and McClung used like winged Mercurles 10
carry their cOlorS to victory while thirty thou-
sand people rent the air with laundering spon-
shouts only eXcelled in electrical erect by
the brilliancy of the play before them. Now. in
stead, when 1 witness a big game see 100 POUNDS
Of beef showing each other around the field few
yards a time. while carefully instructed under
graduates, under mathemau teal leaders cheer on
the heterogeneous pile In order TO put spirit INTO u
Moreover. It is difficult to either how the
plays are executed or how they are stopped
Slxth-And,
the undergraduate TO unfortunate extent ana
turns the game into contest among coaches. The
mechanic who can produce the hnished machines
which play the big games of the year must
not only be a skilled master of his trade, but
must have under him an able corps or superln-
tendents and second hands.
without a radical change in the rules The rules
must be changed, and radically changed; and this
power lies III the hands OF your committee .
The field is now marked off by 5-yard lines
running lengthwse down the field, but only four
yards apart Preserve the same rules as TO on
when the ball is put play after a down, the
shall not line up in close formation as they
90 ben The pas bs IS p in NAV only one
player the same team shall be standing in any
one of the quadrangles formed by these lines,
Two umpires on each side could easily see that
this rule observed. Other rules regulating
the method of putting the ball in play and posi-
bly, the position OF the backs would likewise nave
to be passed; but these matters of detail
which Undoubtedly could be worked out. With
the field thus broken up when the ball is put In
play. and the possibilities for long passes, quick
lodging runs and brilliant tackling in the open.
n1inimiZed and brute showing power ought to be
Of less Importance than individual briliancy. The
game would be open to the men who ought TO
dash and skill and whose contests exceed in in
terest those OF the present beefy conglomeration
bred horses exceeds in interest race betweeD
steam rollers. Yours. very truly,