Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-03
FOOT BALL ASSAFE
AS It CAN Be MADE
Intercollegiate Rules Commit
tee Accomplished Much at
Meeting.
BY Edward r. Bushnell.

modern collegiate foot ball must admit
| that the changes already made and con-
! templated in the rules of the game are
/ such as are calculated to make 1t as safe
as any strenuous American sport can be
made. The intercollegiate foot ball rules
committee accomplished more at it's
meeting in New York last week than was
ever accomplished before in any one year.
| The lengths to which the committee has
| gone to stamp out unnecessary rough
ness and improve the morale of the
game were we'll illustrated by the re-
mark of ex-President Eliot of Harvard.
| that the game Is now 'tolerably' safe,
and that the average college man can
play it during his three-year course with
a reasonable hope of emerging without
| serious injury Only those who know
Dr. Eliot and recall the bitterness with
which he was wont to arraign foot ball
will understand how great an admission
he has made.
At it's second New York session the
committee voted to bring about the fol-
| lowing important changes:
| 1. The prohibition of the flying tackle.
| 2. The elimination of the 5-yard restric-
ton on the quarterback run.
| 3. The retention of the Onside KICK,
with the provision that the ball can be
recovered by the kicking side only on
condition that it goes ~ yards beyond
the line of scrimmage.
| 4. There must be seven men on the line
Of scrimmage at all times.
). The game to be divided into four
playing periods of fifteen minutes each:
| 6. There must be no pushing or pull
| ing of the man with the ball by the Of
/ Tending side.
| The foregoing changes were as far as
| the committee actually went. 1t still has
y,,.J
and as this was the question which the
committee argued longest about, 1t Will
be seen that its work is still far from
finished. What the committee has done
SO far has been merely to reduce the
chances of injury, but in so doing it has
placed serious handicap on the attack
ing team.
After the session of the committee
Parke Davis, the Princeton member. eX-
planned the position of the committee to
the writer as follows:
I'VE think that we have now reduced
the possibility of injuries, but we are not
SO sure that we haven't made 1t too hard
for team to gain ground. Certainly
team will have trouble to gain ten yards
in three downs under the present rules.
The only solution that can see for gain
ing the necessary ground lies in some al
iteration of the forward pass What this
will finally be I confess l have no idea.
This feature Of the case has always inter-
ested me keenly and have tried to work
out solution, but it seems to be as far
away now as 1t ever was.
How to Gain Ground.
From conversation with various men,
bers of the committee there is no doubt
in the mind of the writer that the COM
mittee expects to solve the difficulty by
some manipulation of the forward pass or
the passage of rule which will compel
the defense to limit the width of its line
by the width of the offense OF possibly to
compel both teams to line up within
space of ten yards. II the forward pass
remains unchanged the committee feels
that neither side can score, whereas il the
defense is obliged to keep within the linz
its of the offense there is a fear that the
attacking side will score too rapidly. The
trouble with this latter innovation is that
it is something never tried before and no
member of the committee could tell how
such rule would operate.
In order to be able to talk intelligently
when the committee reports Tor ITS maj
session In Philadelphia April % the COM
mittee made a request that as many or
the universities with representatives on
the rules committee as could do SO hold
an extensive spring practice and try out
the suggestions with reference to the
forward pass and the 1O-yard scrimmage
line. Prior to it's last session the commit
tee made some efforts to experiment with
the rules. Mr.. Stage of the University OF
Chicago conducted foot ball labora-
tory at the University of Arkansas. but
says he learned little. The trouble seems
to have been that the smaller UNIVERSE
ties are not properly equipped to test
new experiments and the larger uni
versities of the north and west were
prevented from trying out the rules by
the snow All have promised to do their
best for the committee within the next
few weeks, and with the completion of
the Easter holidays there will begin
spring foot ball practice such as the COLI
lege world has never seen before.
Division Over the Forward Pass.