The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-05
CAUSEROUCHPLAY
The New Football Rules Are
Not Proving Satisfactory.
In the East Experts Say Present
Game Is Impracticable.
NOW NATTER OF LUCK
Objection TO the Ten Yard Rule
and Forward Pass.
Pass LOcsens the Defense But
Not a Sure Ground Gamer.

New York, Nov: 5.-The new football.
rules are far from proving satisfactory.
with a little luck the weaker team is
just as likely to- win as the superior
one. And the real object for which the
rules were invented have proven a fla
failure-the game today is much more
rough than when flying wedges and
such were allowed.
The most enthusiastic friends OF the
new football whose significant fea-
lures are the ten-yarll rule and the for
ward pass, are discouraged by what
they have seen and heard of the games
so far played. They are almost ready
to agree that the new game is imprac-
t1cabIe. Those who still believe that
the new game, being still in its infancy,
should be given fair chance to grow
and develop, have to admit that no
signs OF the required growth were made
apparent in recent big games.
1t looks as if fully half OF the games
between well-matched and highly ex-
pert elevens would result indecisively,
and many of the other games would be
decided by luck, which has been so sue
cessfully injected into what was once
a game of skill. What is wanted is a
game in which luck shall be quite SUBJ
ordinate to skill and in which even a
slight margin of superiority will be re-
vealed by the final score.
The forward pass appears to have
accomplished the purpose IF 1oosening
the defense to meet il, but as stand
ard means of gaining ground it has
been lamentable failure. The onside
kick brings an enormous element of
luck into the game and admittedly
should not be effective against an
alert defense.
The effort to gain consistently by
straight football is we'll nigh an i'm
possible one. where the teams are still
become the case only where the effec-
tiveness of defensive playing becomes
impaired as it certainly will be as the
generation Of players who were school
ed to tackle hard and low gives place
to that one which will not have learned
the old lesson, that every fractional
inch of trodden turf must be won or
defended desperately.
For instance, when an end goes for
ward to receive the ball on a forward
pass he not only has to seize the ball as
1t comes over the. line, but he has to
withstand the attack of some burly
fellow whose one aim of life at that
moment is, to prevent the runner from
getting the ball-at least to keep him
from going on down the field with it.
Therefore, the runner is generally due
for a hard slam, and in that play alone
several men have been injured this sea-
son. 1F r4
Then, too, the open style Of play, while
making the game more interesting for
the bleachers, is conductive to collisions
that are much more forceful than they
were in the old days. 1t is sef-eV1-
dent fact that men meeting after they
have had chance to acquire good
speed stand a much better chance for
breaking something when they come
together than they did when man was
tackled before he had started away
with the ball. This chance is still cap
able of producing the thrill which comes
when the referee yells Thine out?' and
the men with water pals and restora-
tives race out from the side lines.
The list of mishaps already this sea-
son has assumed quite respectable pro-
portions, and five fatalities have been
recorded. Leonard J. Clarkson, a stu
dent of Norwich university, was the
first fatality recorded, his death being
diagnosed as heart failure induced by
his exertions in a football scrimmage.
Thomas Bertram, a schoolboy Of Port
age Pa, was kicked in the head during
a game and succumbed to conclusion
of the brain; Eugene Bourne, of Salt
Lake City, had his spine fractured in
prep school game. The latest victim
was Albert Flowers. of GAINESVILLE, O.,
whose skull was fractured, causing
death.