The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-25

Incorporated clauses IN the ruie winch
will not only discourage the practice, but
Will punish IL by penalty in every way.
A Good Preventive
Another section of the revised rules
prohibits the intcrlocked interference.
This, too: is move In the right direc-
ton; which is a distinct safeguard
against injury This section Of rule
XVII Is SO clear and sane that it is worth
emphasizing TO impress it fully upon
ems OF this season. The section reads:
No player OF the side in possession OF
the ball shall use his hands, arms or
body TO push pull or hold upon his feet
the player carrying the bali, nor shall
there be any interlocked interference. By
lnterlocked interference is meant the
grasping OF one another by, or encircling
the body TO any degree with, the hands
session of the ball"
Presume that player OF the attacking
Is tackled by a player OF the opposing
side. In the past IL has been customary
for the players OF the side In possession
Of the ball to come to the assistance Of
he be momentarily checked. one OF his
own team might grasp him. hold him
erect and push or pull him for some
distance into tho territory of the de-
Tending side.
Other players of the attacking side
might join with him and with arms
around each other push and pull In united
effort against the contcnding side until
the player holding the ball was the storm
center OF struggling mass and in no
position to guard and caro- for himself,
since. with the ball in his arms. he WAS
practically powerlcss. His sole depend
ence against injury resolved itself almost
wholly into the ability of his own side
10 maintain him In an erect position. If
thrown TO tho ground he was likely TO
become the bottom figure OF dangerous
''pile-up.''
Will End These Plays.
The strict enforcement of this rule
should drive from the game all mass plays
based OH concerted effort TO advance
the ball after 1t has once been checked
player who has the ball In his possession
must rely upon his individual effort
10 penetrate the defense and when finally
stopped through the efforts of the side
not In possession Of the ball or because
the referee is satisfied that the prog
| ress of the ball has been stopped within
the provision OF the rules, there should
not be found such sights as have been
common on the football field when ten
or fifteen players have slowly disentan-
gled themselves from disorganized mass
to discover that the player with the ball,
who was beneath ali OF them. is scnse-
less from injury or almost powerless from
exhaustion.
The abolition of interlocked interfer
ence in more ways than one reaches to
the very root OF the cancer of unneces-
sary mass play against which critics
and anti-football advocates have in
Weighed for years
Individuality of action on the football
field. so far as IL does away with mass
play should serve 10 make the game
brighter cleaner and more interesting.
Concerted football. In which different in
diyiduals play their part in blocking or
euding the defense, or separating the at
|tack Is purely within the strategy of the
game, but concerted football in which
players assemble in masses to advance
the ball by sheer force OF strength or
weight resolves itself too much into push
ball which Is foreign TO football
The acme of football strategy is where
one Individual matches his brains. speed
and skill against another or against
sequence of individuals as he meets them
one at q time. but not where the indj
vidua1 is compelled TO defend himself
against the mass or where the individual
becomes the center around which two
masses revolve in conflicting effort. one
with the purpose to force the individual
player forward and the other with the
purpose TO force the individual player TO
retreat
Individual Effort.
We have team play I'm baseball. All uf
our. American athletes can tell what 1t