Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-10-31
FOOTBALL CODE IN
NEED OF CHANGES
1910 Revision a FaiIure-FanS
Want Old Game Back
Again

That the new rules for football will
again have to be doctored is the con-
sensus of opinion of students of the
college game who have studied the last
efforts of the ruIemakers art and have
seen the new game tried out this fall
{ True, it is a trifle early to make any
final statement as to the merits of the
rules that have been trimmed and
patched to meet the demands of fanat-
les who are always out to knock the
"rah-rah'' sport, but the chorus OF
complaints that is already coming in
sound like a knell for some of the re-
strictive rules at least.
The popularity of the game among
all classes of youngsters who love
rough sport has taken football into
high schools and academies where I'M
dersized and immature boys are used
to fill up the team to make an eleven.
The results have brought the annual
howl from parents and fanatics who
wish to kill the game for reforms
( sake. If each state would pass few
trict laws requiring football candi-
dates to pass a physical examination
and be IS years of age, much of this
death statistics business that fills the
l swspaper columns every fall, with
3 attending howl for reformed foot
b III, would be stopped and the game
cl I'D be kept near enough like that of
I'll , preceding season so that old players
W uld not have to learn new game.
'he adjustment of the push-and-
pull game takes away the finished
team play that coaches and players
have been striving to develop for the
past decade. 1t is apparent after
watching the early games that evenly
matched teams would have great dlt-
ficulty in scoring and that the trick
plays would have a more important
part in football than ever before.
The division of the game into four
periods is also receiving much criti-
cism from players. The game Is
slowed up materially and players
claim that any conditioned player can
stand the long halves, and those VINO
cannot have no place in the game. me
training is going to be sighted and
each rest after grueling period
leaves the player stiff and slow Tor
the start of the next session,
DR. Carl Williams declares the new
rules put too great a burden on the
offense and he will try at the next
session of the rules committee to have
the distance to be gained in three
downs cut from ten to five yards.
Where the forward pass has been
tried so far the rule which prevents
interference met with approval. Many
injuries and disastrous plays resulted
from interference on this point last
year.
The team of heady players who have
the rules at their finger tips, with
plenty of speed to carry out their
tricks, are going to win the champion
ships this fall.
"You don't want to overlook the
value of weight in the line" said an
old coach. "Of course the premium is
now placed on speed, but a good line
man Weighing 100 pounds, equally as
speedy as man Weighing 165 pounds,
is Just twenty-five pounds more valu-
able"
eFootball will be faster this year
- n ever. There will be more open
Tvs. of course, and the forward pass
Ii be employed much more frequent
than heretofore. Removing the pen
for incompleted forward pass
es away the chief objection to that
~
defensive men who can run and
In will prove of vast benefit You
bnot block the man who goes out to
y the forward pass, so an opponent
70 can leap high and capture the
will prove of vast benefit on de-
Sc. In this way the basketball
ment will enter more than 1t has in
mast !"