The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-02
Change in Forward Pass Rule.

SHdHSS W ~ dSo
The football rules committee which
met in New York last week has changed
the forward pass rule as in force last
season. That this would be done was
predicted by the writer early in last
season. The old rule added entirely too
much of the element Of luck to a game
and in many cases a team weaker in
every department was able to either win
or run up a close score on its oppo-
nents through sheer luck and not on
account of knowledge, or better play
ing of the game. The forward pass is
a good thing and if it can be regulated
to shut out the fiuke element, il will
be one of the best features of the mod
ern game of foot ball. The rule as al
tered, il is claimed by the rules COM
mittee, will greatly reduce the luck ele-
ment of the play, but whether it act
ually works out as figured will not be
known until a few games have been
played next fall.
Heretofore any person could recover
the ball after it had been legitimately
touched. The rule is changed so no
player on the passing side can touch
the ball. except the player who first
legally touched it. until after it has
been touched by an opposing player.
This means that if the man receiving
the pass touches the ball and does not
hold it, the ball rolling along the
ground, no player on his side can touch
it until after an opponent or himself
has touched it again. This change, it
is hoped, will prevent the throwing OF
the ball Unfortunately, trusting to
luck that one of the passing side Will
fall on it.
There was another restriction passed
bearing upon the forward pass, treating
with the rights of players while the ball
is in the air. This prohibits the de-
Tending players from holding the play
ers on the side trying to make the pass,
as was done by Princeton in breaking
ND the Carlisle Indians passes. 1t also
defines the rights of the passing side in
using their hands. These instructions
were:
Is While the forward pass is in the air,
PLAYERS on the defensive side may not
use their hands or arms on their oppo-
nents, except to push them out of the
way in order to get at the ball them
selves.
players of the side making the for
ward pass who are eligible to receive
the pass may use their arms just as the
players may when going down under
the kick.
Denver has organized a Hotair club.
Paul Steuck is its president, and its
membership is composed of shooters
and fishermen. This is plainly an in
fringement of the Salt Lake Hotair
club. which the writer believes is pat
ented. We, here in Salt Lake, do not
object to the Colorado School of Mines
claiming the championship after get
ting defeated by the University of
Utah. Nor do we object to Denver
fighters coming over here, calling us
a lot of brushers and telling us how to
run the fight game. The latter wakes
I'D after the gate receipts are counted.
Denver has a lot of good sports and
good sportsmen, but when il comes to
organizing an opposition Hotair club,
il is time to call halt Salt Lake
shooters and fishermen may not be the
hest in the world, but when it comes
TO a gang of them sitting around a
stove and handing out perfected
brand of superheated atmosphere, the
bunch presided over by Dorsey Burgess
outclasses anything that Paul Steuck
can hope to sign up in a generation.
When the Denver club gets going good
and strong, the writer suggests de-
bate on any subject from killing roost-
ers at forty yards with fives and sew
ems. the flight of a mallard when he
gets a telephone call to hurry home,
or the ability of an English setter In
flushing grasshoppers. The losing team
must at once take steps toward dis
banding their club and leave the field
to the victors. And it is an even bet
that Rod" Mckenzie will back Salt
lake