The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-13
The East FrOwns ON the For
ward Pass i'm Football.
New GridirOn Play Lightly Re-
garded by Yale.
HARVARD ALSO QUITS.
Says 1t Is No Longer Football,
But Variation of Basketball.
Trouble Is i'm Distanc Penalty
When Pass LIS Uncompleted.

Chicago. Nov. .1S.-FootbaH rule
makers and experts the country over
are beginning to figure up the success
or failure of the new style of gridiron
game and analyze the results Inc
forward pass is regarded with disfa-
vot- in the east: in the middle west 1t
is Judged the most efficient play OF
the season.
The forward pass, as Ch1cago's Ma
rooms have developed it, has proved
the favorite play in the middle west
Inability to gain ten yards In three
downs under Iine-plunging plays has
made western experts willing to adopt
Stages methods in every possible in
stance. 1t has equalized the strength
of the various elevens and the root
ers like the game, as it gives greater
action and variety as well as sensa-
tional plays a-plenty.
Football under the new rules is so
well liked by the rooters in the mid
die west that any change would bring
strenuous protest
Reports from eastern camps say
that the rules governing the forward
pass may receive another shake-up
this winter at the hands of the rule
makers. The trouble lies i'll the dis
lance. penalty, inflicted when pass
i Co.
falls to the ground before being
touched by a player of either side.
Under these conditions, if 1t is the
first or second down, penalty of f1f-
teen yards is imposed on the team at
tempting the play.
Last year the penalty was imme-
-diate loss of the ball. This was re-
-garded as too great penalty, and
players hesitated about making the
play for fear of losing the ball. So
the change was made inflicting a dis
lance penalty instead of loss of the
ball.
Arguments are being made in the
east by well-known coaches and lead
ers in football favoring a return to
the first ruleLloss of the ball on un-
completed forward passes-or the
abolition of the play entirely. That
the play is not a great success is ap-
parently the opinion of many.
Yale, it is said, has practically drop
ped the forward pass, using 1t only
once or twice in game for the sole
purpose of making the enemy know
1t may be worked any time and COM
polling the opponents line to play
wider, thus weakening it against line
plunges, to which the fasteners are
showing a decided tendency to return.
Harvard, too, it, is said, is follow
ing Yale's example regarding the play,
as are most of the other big schools
in the east. The smaller fry natural
ly. cling to it. knowing that such a
able them to score against a vastly
superior team, which they could not
possibly do under the old style OF
game.
The strongest argument advanced
so far by eastern opponents to the
new style of game is that it Is no
longer football, but a variation of bas-
ket ball, now being given on the grid
irons Carlisle, it is acknowledged, |
has this style of game mastered bet
ter than any eastern eleven. |
Several experts in the middle west |
argue that the play is now used to ex-
cess because it is new, but that when |
1t has settled to it's normal place in |
the usual repertory of a gridiron cap
tain it will be held in reserve in the |
nature Of a fake play of great dan
ger and efficacy, for the sole purpose |
of spreading the defensive line suffi- |
GENTLY to permit line attacks to plow |
through. for the necessary ten yards |
In three downs.