Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-09

ball, and when he is tackled he has no
protection of any sort.
1t is proposed to offset the savage tack
ling by borrowing something from the rules
Of Canadian Rugby, which permits the
catcher a sort of respite. No tackler Is
permitted to come within three yards Of
him until he has either caught or muffed
the ball. With fast ends, such as the
American game has developed, thfs would
leave the catcher as much at the mercy
of the ends as before, but he would not
be liable to injury. The ends. waiting as
they would be together, would have the
man all the surer, even il he were q clever
dodger,' and he at least would not meet
with such hurts. 1t would not destroy the
beauty of the game. 1t appears. and the
injuries surely would be less.
AS regards the forward pass, 1t Is be-
lieved that this play would be better If
the restrictions putting penalties on 1t
when incompleted were removed, and also
If it were the plan to have forward passes
made only behind the line of scrimmage.
1t would be possible, then, to make long
losses to players who would have some
little protection near the line. This also
would bring the secondary defense up
closer. 1t has been pointed out that a
defect of the game this season was the
pounding away at the tackles, who were
not supported by a secondary defense, be-
cause those men had to lie back and far
out in order to guard against the forward
pass, which could be made over the line
and to any distance that appeared prac-
ticable.
With the passes pack of the line the
secondary defense would be drawn in ma
turally, in it's attempts to get the runner
when the first line had made it's try and
there would be backing for the tackles, a
particularly vulnerable place, should the
play be one through the line instead of a
/ Onward pass.
Technically 1t is believed that this is
one of the best working suggestions that
has been made regarding the reforming of
the game and it appears in the resolutions
put before the executive COMMITTEES of the
intercollegiate Athletic Association of the
United States by the authorities at West
Point. Curiously enough it was brought
out almost simultaneously by a sporting
writer in New York and an army captain
in the west.
Whether these suggestions and some
others that haye been made win act as
the cures for the dangerous features Of
49, 5~N - - aN2NEC NAAo1 "AA A0NN ~ ~
argued. Some persons contend that the
trouble with foot ball lies in its character
and that unit! there are alterations in its
nature the game cannot be made s~atisfac.
tory. There are others who contend thai
the over-zealous efforts to suit the public
in 1906 and to make the game very oper
resulted in such regulations that there wa.
too much danger.
Students of foot ball say that the history
of the game always has been that the oper
field playing was generally the most dan
gerous and that the rule makers, although
they knew and felt this, determined tina
the game they produced in 1906 should b,
one that would suit the public and would
conform to the expressed desire of thu
people to be able TO see more Of the play
regardless OF the consequences they knew
such changes might have.
1t is the belief of many persons now tina
the proper way to alter the game Of foo
ball would be to return in great measure t.
the old style of play, with certain restric
lions about Interference, that would stoI
the exaggerated mass plays of some tim,
ago, such as the guardsmen and tackles
back plays. Even these heavy mass plays
many persons say, did not do the terrific
damage that was ascribed to them, bu
folks who couldn't see the ball and coulC
not tell about the progress of the pla!
aseribed all sorts OF things TO the clos
plays that they could not analyze.
III you will believe me-" said an oil,
foot ball player recently, the thing to d.
is to come back to the old game. But tn
minute you say old game the public vii
jump in alarm. and there is no man TO
day who has the courage to come forwar,
and to say that fifteen or twenty year
ago We did not have these terrible acct
dents and We you'd not Jay them nov
e the open field game did not give s.
much opportunity for them. 1t probabi
will not be done, as l say, because the pub
lie is afraid OF the sound Of the name o
the old game.
But by regulating the places of tn
backs on offense and prohibiting the tire
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