Norwich bulletin., 1910-08-15

I Soiiie nONel Iactlcai eVOlutlOn tnat next
 November may bring victory to his Alma Mater and widespread fame to it's inventor.
 Football essentially is game of
 strategy, more elastic and profound 1 than chess, only less elastic and pro- found than the tactics of actual war.
 In .the radical and revolutionary re- vision of the rules presented for 1910
 football tacticians, players and spec | tators will find new game
 Statisticians of the gridiron con- | tend that football is no moro danger ous than baseball and they point to
 the fact that the fatalities upon the diamond during three weeks of last April equaled the record of football
 last autumn for 10 weeks, while for
 minor injuries the record of baseball | IS as high as 25 to l. Notw ithstand- | ing any such comparison the rules | committee of football resolutely de- | term1ned to reach and eradicate the
 dangers of it's own game.
 This task~the committee has per- | formed, instituting a reform the most drastic which football yet has encoun- 1 tered In this revision the committee
 did not work upon theory. It had
 to the cause of. the injuries that | marked the season of 1909. This data | indicated as the offending features mass play, interlocking interference. | flying tackles and the recovery of for | ward passes.
 The dangers of the flying tackle were not difficult to remove. since it
 was possible 10 remove the flying | tackle itself without any effect what | ever upon any other play. as tackling | is separate feature of the game and | not connected or correlated with any other playing systems. The commit | tee simply has ruled that hereafter no | player shall tackle an opponent with out having at the time at least one | foot upon the ground. It was the
 mass play and the forward pass that | 0CcTIDiad ha r,1if day
 and large part of the intervening nights.
 Princeton, with the University of | Chicago, proposed as remedy for massed interference as extension of rule 17 so as to require seven men of | the offensive side to stand upon the line of scrimmage and to prohibit play CTS of this side from aiding the man carrying the ball or one another by hands, arms or body, either in pushing or pulling, thus eliminating the famil | far spectacle of 20 years standing of player being whirled through the line.
 After prolonged debate and consid erable experimentation this proposi- tion was adopted. This radical change means the return of that style of game which characterized the late sos. The rush line will probably play a widely extended line this fall and the man with the ball at all times will be in full view of the spectators. With the
 
 will be the same as end running, a quick dash through an open line. Ie It was obvious to the committee that this drastic change would reduce the offensive strength of the game more than half, and that it was incumbent to restore in some way the equilibri- um of the game, which must main tain at all times so far as the rules are concerned, a fair struggle between the offence and the defence and thus prevent scoreless or heavily scoring games. This condition the committee met by removing the restriction upon run. which hitherto has required each of these plays to be executed five yards distant from the centre.
 The effect of the second of these changes means the disappearance of the position of quarterback, since un- der the new rules any back may carry the ball through the line at any point upon a snap direct from center IT the quarterback goes the present method of snapping the ball will go. Shaping the ball is defined under the rules as putting the ball in play with a contin- uous motion of the hand or foot Since the quarterback will be found this fall in the line or group of backs, it is cer- tain that the coaching genius of the country will devise a better way of sending the ball back from center than the present method, which has. existed for 31 years.
 This change means fast, open and running game, in which the premium no longer will be placed upon players of gigantic build.
 The investigation into the accidents of last fall disclosed the fact that many were due to exhaustion. This presents a condition that is beyond rule makers to remedy, since it devolves wholly up- on players, their captain, coach, train CT or medical supervisor. The commit tee, however, has aided these men in the performance of their duties by abolishing the famous "halvess of foot ball and substituting instead four quar- ters of 15 minutes duration, thereby reducing the playing time of game by 10 minutes and giving two addition al periods of rest.
 This is the custom of the Canadian game. In connection herewith the committee has provided that a player once removed may return once again to play. It is believed that this priv ilege will prevent good man from playing to exhaustion rather than leave the game to which he cannot re- turn. Nor is it new. This also was in the original Rugby game and was not abolished until the convention of March 27, 1890.
 In the matter of the forward pass the committee faced q difficult problem in deed The injurious effects Of this play in the last three years have been tWo- fold. First, it has subjected the play CTS recovering the pass to violent per sonal collisions, and, second, by forcing the secondary. defense to play at least 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage to protect forward pass zone it has brought upon the unsupported tackles the dangerous continuous mass plays. The specific problem before the com mittee was to protect the men recover ing the pass and still not disturb the very foundation of the game You may say as many have suggested, Simply forbid a player to interfere with an other while recovering the forward pass" But this brings up the query: How can the player on the defense know that the men coming down the field are to take a forward pass ," They may intend to recover a kick or they may be leading a running play.
 Thus it became obvious to fthe com | mittee that one rule must be found | which would take into consideration all three contingencies. This has been done by prescribing that the players on | defense may try to catch a ball when | passed forward, and that any interfer- | ence by them which is incidental to a ] bona fide attempt ta get the ball shall | be perm issible but that no jlayer shall | be permitted to ignore the flight of the | ball. and violently Dat his opponents | rk,s <|