Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1905-11-23
FOOTBALL AS SHE IS PLAYED.

For years there has been growing
sentiment against the game OF foot
ball. as at present played in our Amer
can colleges and Institutions of learn
no. The bases OF objection are that
the game is too strenuous, too rough,
100 brutal, too dangerous for the par
Elephants; that the element of skill and
science in its prosecution is quite dis
proportionate to the element of brute
force; that the game has a degrading
effect on its spectators, as well as its
players : that it develops instincts that
should be discouraged, rather than
lattered.
It's not sufficient to reply that pub
lie interest in football was perhaps
never so keen as at present; that
almost every grammar school has its
"eleven, with coach, trainer, mascot
and all the hideous armor OF the field;
THAT thousands swarm 10 see every big
game: that the outcome is the subject
of popular talk everywhere. Every
Bit of this argument applies with equal,
| If not greater, force to pngilistic con-
tests. or other tests of personal proves
that have been tabooed in nearly all
states for the same reasons that are
now being urged against football
There are always plenty OF people
ready to see or read OF a "scrap,
though quite a proportion OF them
confess their weakness and would
agree that it is wrong.
This fall, especially, there has been
a notable growth in the anti-footoall
sentiment. Even President Roosevelt
whom no one will accuse OF eiemlna-
CIV. has taken the matter in hand to the
extent OF calling a conference Of Yale
Harvard and Princeton coaches and
getting them to promise that so far as
they can they will endeavor to elm
mate roughness and rowdyism from
the game. President Eliot OF Harvard
disapproves Of football. Coach Reid
of Harvard recently declared that I'M
less brutalism could be cut out, the
American game should 90. The au-
thorities OF several western colleges
have forbidden the game to their stu
dents. In our own state, following
and as a result OF a contest in which
several members of the Burlington
High school eleven were crippled,
Principal Thomas OF that school has
declared the game off for good there,
until it has been modified materially
Efforts have been made to prohibit its
, playing by legislative enactment
Parents have been brought to worry
and trouble by their sons partlcipa-
: ton in football. The list of casual
ties-every year long one-always
, includes some deaths, which is too
heavy price to pay for mere sport
Football, properly played, has 8
, right to standing among clean athletic
, sports. 1t is a historic game, dating
back to classic times. II is lively and
exhilaratiug, brings into play quick
ness and skill, trains the mind anc
! body and is pleasing to witness. Bui
football has degenerated in this coun
: try to a plane where many OF its eX
cellent features are lost, and other:
quite the reverse substituted. Foot
! ball was once, and still should be
mostly a kicking game. The ball Of
oval should be kicked, not carried by
e mass plays. Line bucking, tackle
: formations, and tackling the runne
i should be eliminated, for it is here
t that the roughness creeps in. 1t is 81
d easy to grab, gouge, punch or staml
on an opponent in the midst OF
d melee, and so satisfactory to the play
: er's feelings after being used in tn
o same way himself, and so nue.
!. is to be gained often by putting a Ger
tain opponent out of the game by in
Turing him that the chance is freel.
% taken. Nor is it always intentional
N Catch a runner by the legs when he
going at full speed, lift MIN bodily an
y bang him down on the hard, some
N times frozen, sod, and it is only luc
10 if some of his bones are not broken
as Rush one set OF heavy, athletic youth
" straight against another like q batter
e inc ram until the ball is "downed,
e. then all hands pile on. and if the to
as or more OF wriggling flesh doesn
crush the ones at the bottom, no on
"A is certainly at fault tor not havin
,e done his best to produce that result
90 And these fearful clashes are mel
a. scrimmages to the spectators, VIII
in cannot possibly see what is being don,