Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-04
BURTON BROWN IS
AGAINST NEW CODE
Old Game Had Fewer Accidents
and Has Been Reformed
to Death

NEW YORK, Sept. 8.-Burton s.
Brown says: 1T must have required a
lot of ether for the operation on foot
ball that the rules committee per-
formed. The experts have reformed
the game to meet a public demand for
reform. Now it is up to the public to
decide what sort of game 1t has
received from the operating table.
Football, has been practically re-
formed to death. For several years
everything has been moro or less ex-
detrimental because of reform. Spec
tators have not been able to get the
run of things It has been impossible
for coaches or players to settle down
and work out any system of play that
would endure. Everything has been
topsy turvy, and many of the essen
tials of the great American game nave
gradually been lost.
Some Of the most stirring contests
in the history of football were played
wears ago under the old rules. Serious
injuries were few. Then, the expert
mental period began and the game has
been on an unsteady foundation ever
since.
'Real American football is a game
for big, strong men, and when 1t be-
comes a sport in which little men can
indulge it is no longer American foot
ball, but merely a hodge podge affair
for athletes who are not quite good
enough to make their marks in de-
partments of college sport for Whlch
they are better suited physically.
"Of course, if the American public
should proclaim in a loud voice that
American football is too strenuous a
sport, it would be possible to get a
substitute. If a substitute is required,
why not introduce it outright and stop
torturing the old game which has been
the standby of the universities for
years?
I'VE might take that Canadian game
which proved such a disappointment to
New Workers ,last fall, when visiting
teams tried to show us that we did
not know anything about football
1 for one do not believe In permitting
every Tom, Dick and Harry to talk
US out of this and that feature OF
play which has made American foot
ball so much better than the gridiron
sports of other countries.
"If we take one thing from one style
Of game and something else from an
other. what name is there under the
sun that we can give to the composite
creature2 The trouble is that we were
not content in the beginning to leave
good enough alone Then, when once
the doors of experiment were thrown
open, one change required another,
until now we do not know just where
we are at
"American football for years has
been writhing under a terrific mauling.
Figuratively, 1t has been crying, 1
wish you would leave me alone and
give me a chance But that was only
the signal for more mauling, until to-
day the game is too weak to make
even a peep.
conditions have developed that have
made it almost impossible for any
team to maintain a true and steady
standard of efficiency from year to
year. They have imposed nerve
racking task on coaches and exposed
all players to variety of dangers.
The coaches have found 1t necessary
to take chances in order to overcome
new fads of play, and the players not
having had time enough to thoroughly
master new requirements have not been
able to learn how to avoid new dan
gers.
''If played during the coming season
under the new rules is American foot
ball. all we'll and good, and let's stick
to it; if not, it ought to be called
something else for the sake of the old
game, which probably would have been
all right today if a lot of frills had
not been tackled to its fundamental
principles.
Nobody can say at the present
time what the season Will bring forth,
unless it be confusion both on the
field and in the stands