Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-03
FOOT BALL.
BY WALTER CAMP,
Namkar ~ RnIaS Tom m N foo


How can man whose blood is warm within
Sit like his grandsire carved In alabaster?
Beneath all our sports lies the desire
of youth for an outlet-a chance to come
to grips with some one.
AS Stevenson says, 1T is held to be
good taunt and somehow or other to
clinch the question logically when an old
gentleman says: .Ah SO thought when
l was your age. 1t Is not thought an
answer at all If the young man retorts:
My venerable sir, SO / shall most prob
ably think when l am yours!'"
But no amount of accumulated caution
has ever had much, if any, effect upon
this ever-bubbling spirit of youth and in
spite of admonition he has ever had his
hazards, his adventures, his rougher
sports. and probably will have them until
the emo of time. Yet is he willing to
though it is hard to hold him. In foot
ball he has for hundreds of years found
a special from of appealing contest. Does
any one believe that youth himself wor-
ries over the danger? Never; he fears
an accident only because 1t may pre-
vent him playing more. He regards with
concern those who would change his
sport.
He was impatient with them some half
dozen years ago, but public opinion
proved too strong for him and he ac-
cepted the changes with good grace
Now, having learned that lesson, he is
not SO outspoken and less impatient with
those who would modify the game once
again, but he loves their efforts no more
than he did before. And remember this
is a new set OF boys. and they will be
followed by others and still others One
might just as well try to dam the stream
of life as to expect that any legislation
Is going to change the spirit Of the ever
lasting boy or to believe that, football,
or no foot ball. he is not going to find
some sport Of personal contract to an
swer that call in his blood that nature
his implanted deeper than the rules can
ever reach.
So the effort OF those who undertake
legislation should be toward lessening
the danger incident to the sport without
paying too much attention to the point of
heightening the interest for spectators
AS safe and sane game as possible for
boys to play and yet meeting this desire
and craving for lusty, rugged effort must
be the motto of rule makers. Speed,
agility, quick thinking. skill and strength
should each have its place and relative
value, while coordination and team work
should enjoy recognition. Now Is the
time for those to whom the boy Is willing
to ntrust his rule-making to do every
thing possible to eliminate the element of
serious injury and to lessen in every way
tendencies that may lead to exhaustion
likely to be followed by increased liabil
ity to such injury.
That there will be accidents in any
game involving personal physical contact
is as inevitable as that accidents will
always accompany all the other vigorous
sports of youth, and a demand that foot
ball shall have no risk is as senseless as
would be a similar demand regarding
other games and sports. To eliminate
every sport into which risks come would
be to sweep out of existence almost the
whole category and to fly In the face Of
natures own demands What Gordon
wrote many years ago is as true today
as il was then:
For no game was ever worth a rap
For a rational man to play
Into which no accident. NO mshap
Could possibly find its way.