The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-10-09
FOOTBALL TO-DAY
unlike old GAME
Players Must Unlearn Whatever
They Know and Start
Over Again.
NO INTERFERENCE ALLOWED
NO INTERFERENCE ALLOWED
Game Completely Changed and
Old-Timers Are Dissatisfied.
Will Be Further Modified.

Will Be Further Modified.
How many football enthusiasts really
know the game as 1t is played to-day?
If YOU were asked to explain the
rules would you be able to do so TO
your entire satisfaction!
These are questions which are
worrying the minds- Of more men than
those who simply go to see the game.
The trouble with the rules of 1910 are
that there are no precedents by whlch
one may be guided. Here we have an
entirely different sort Of a game from
that 10 whirh we have been accus-
toned. Tie one thing which has un-
aergone no change is the uniform
which the men wear 1t would be
perfectly reasonable assertion to say
that the average person going to see
football game to-day would be COM
pleteIy at sea were 1t not for the uni
forms.
Take for instance. the rule which
prohibits player from leaving his
feet when making tackle. On,
shades of all We old-timers! How
often have you been rated In all lan-
guages because you were so clumsy,
or so thickheaded. or so cumbrous as
to be unable to leave your feet? How
often have you gone to your room at
night "cussing out" the coach because
he was so insstent about leaving the
ground when you went after your
man? q
Don't you really feel that you would
like to return to college Just for the
sport of being able to play in a foot
ball game where you could tackle
without leaping into the air and
graspipg, as like as not at nothing?
For years and years coaches have
q We al the fee. of the man with
the ball. and now, insooth. the gentle
men of the rules committee have
actually inhibited this very keystone
of the arch of football
Four Quarters Now.
But there are other changes just as
radical. No longer is the game divided
into equal halves. Instead we have
the fifteen minute quarters, with a
three-minute rest between the first
End second and the third and fourth
quarters during which you may recour
your forces. And you youngsters who
get tired after the first few minutes
of play. be of good cheer. If you ge,
tired all You have to do is to tell your
coach. Then he will take you out. put
some one else in until you are rested
and back you go to the old job. DOM
worry, for under the new rules yor
may be taken out and put back in any
number of times.
If you want to make a forward pas:
all you have to do is to step back
five yards. huri the ball over any part
OF the line and II some one is there
to- receive the pass. you are alright
n Ha i,,fo to y,
about to}recclve the pass, but 1t is per-
fectly legitimate for player of the
defense to try and capture the ball
itself. If. he is successful he can start
for his own goal Just as hard and fast
as he likes But If he misses the ball,
end 1t falls to the ground, then the
pass Is declared incomplete and the
team making the pass is penalized to
the extent of having the ball carried
back to the point from which the pass
was originally made.
No More Interference.
BY far the prettiest feature Of the
present rules is the edict of mo in
reference allowed" Let play start
from where 1t will. whether 1t be an
end run, fake kick or a forward
pass, the man with the ball must be
absolutely alone, No more hiking or
pulling or throwing OIL defensive
players who are trying to get at the
man with the ball. All of this Is
tahooed. You've simply got to fool
them. and " you don't-but that's an
OTHER story rs Mr.. Kipling would say.
Yea. verify. it is a new game. Only
once has this modified football been
played in Richmond. That was when
the Maryland Aggies and Richmond
College did battle. In that contest the
forward pass was used extensively and
netted some good gains, especially for
the Aggies. But the gains We're due
to the greater agility of the MARYLAND
players. Richmond attempted the pass,
but only once was 1t successful. On
other occasions the opposing team cap
tured the pigskin or fouled the pass,
1t was pitiful at times to look at the
poor lone little man In the camp OF
his enemies waiting for the heaNe
which might prove fruitful or dis
astrous. Not one Of his teammates
could help him. He simply had to
stand and nope for the best.
But the people who are responsible
for this new. game say that It Will
prove less hazardous than of old,
True, every word. Also 1t will prove
less interesting. However the end is
probably worthy of the means, un-
ouestionably some modification OF the
game as it has existed was necessary
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