The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1909-11-19
HOW jEFFRlES
VIEWS FOOTBALL
More Brutal Than Boxing, De-
cIaTes the PugIIlst.
DISCUSSES FATE OF BYRNE.

on the Gridiron It's Eleven, He Says.
Would Ask Referee to Stop Bout Be-
fore He'd Smash Man Nearly Out.
Jim Jeffrles. the pugilist. who is
matched to meet Jack johnson for the
heavyweight championship Of the
world, has few warm words to say
about college football He commented
on the fate Of Cadet Eugene A. Byrne,
who died from injuries received In the
Harvard and West Point game. AS
usual. it was necessary to corkscrew
few answers out of him before his
tongue began to work freely.
Hold onl' said he quickly. I'm
fighter. Maybe / ought not to have
any opinions about football 1t isn't
my game. I'm not supposed to know
anything about it. Well. Yes. I've
been reading the papers Tell me, on
the level, have they killed seven boys
already this year? That's serious. No
joke ai,out that kind of game.
guess. Now. then
"You can say that I'm against any
game that kills seven boys while it's
only warming up. you might say. That
sort of game isn't worth while. No
game that kills men as a regular thing
is worth while
Women Abhor Prizefshtsrs.
"There have always been lot Of
men in this country who stand up ON
their hind legs and roar about the bru-
taIity of the boxing game. Their WON
Ell viii pull their skirts away from a
( prizehghter as If he was some sort Of
an animal yet these same people go
out to football game and yell them
selves black in the face at an exhibit
/ ton that's too rough for men who fight
I for a living The women tool Yes,
sir. I've seen 'em, and / know.
Football IS all right, eh? It's a
/ fashionable game. Society stands for
4 1t, yet in the old bare knuckle days
/ when men picked their hands in brine
I for weeks before fight there was
never anything to compare with the
roughness and the brutality of this
nice. social game.
"This will make lot of people sore,
i but III tell why think football IS
I more brutal than boxing yes. you can
call it prizefghting If you want TO-
I When a man goes into the ring he
/ knows he has only got to whip one
man-only got to fight one man. The
odds are fair In this football busi-
ness you've got eleven men against
4 you
Went Down For the Count.
81 saw In the paper this afternoon
that Just before this poor cadet was
hurt he had been In smashup and
went down for the count. He was
game, and he got up again and went
to his place. What did they dof
They directed the attack against the
weak place. the paper says. In other
words, all those big. husky fellows
smashed into this boy. who was stili
groggy. and they got him.
'sThey can send all the kilograms OF
coincidence they want TO, but that
doesn't bring him back. They piled
\ the whole line on him, and they did It
when they knew he was weak and
not in shape. They did 1t because he
was weak why, I'd be ashamed to
smash man as hard as / could when
I knew he was nearly out. I'd ask the
referee to stop the fight before I'd
do that.
Here's another reason why football
is bad business: In a fight II a man
gets clip on the jaw and goes down
and can't get up again In ten seconds
he's done. He doesn't have to take
any more punishment In football
game they give man two minutes to
4 come back III they had had some
4 such rule as we have in the ring this
cadet would never have been killed
He would have been out of the game
when he was stunned the first time
Risk Everything For Nothing.
Here's another thing that strikes
me. Most Of the boys who play foot
bail are only kids. They haven't their
growth or their full strength. they
20 IN there and get slammed around,
and they cannot stand it. They don't
4 get thing ont Of 1t If they win. DO
you suppose all the rah-rah business
in the world could make mp the loss
Of one boyto his folk? They risk
everything for nothing.
Let 'em holler about fighting being
brutal. III tell you something IL
prlzefighting should kill fifteen men
In one year every legislature in the
country would put the game out Of
business. And that isn't all they'd do.
They'd hang a few Of the winners.
This talk about boxing being brutal
and football being fine game makes
me sick. If had son I'd send him
into the ring to fight one man at a
time before I'd let him get into one
of those harnesses and take his
chances with eleven fellows. Yes. and
he'd lose q decision to me the first
time he began to talk football"
There seems to be no question about