The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-12-29

Edward B. Cochems, football
coach, well known in the West and
a player of renown, suggests changes
to restore the good old game of foot
ball to fundamental principles. His
suggestions may not be popular with
the members Of the rules committee
but they are eminently sensible and
worthy of consideration. The article
is reprinted from the New York
Tribune.
American college football. as now
constructed. is the only one OF the
leading sports which is unfair and un-
Just In its distribution OF time eie-
ments for the attack. Its rules are
complicated and unnatural. Baseball.
track and field athletics, aquatics.
basketball, lacrosse. lawn tennis SOC
Ger football. English rugby football.
wrestling. hockey, etc. are ell natural
In their system Of play. This is not
true OF American college football.
SO long as the rule makers ignore
or misunderstood this situation, go
long will they be compelled to tinker
with the code and have various In
terests clam oring for concessions.
They will never be able to balance
the forces Of the game so long as
they attempt to adjust the number OF
within the goal lines. This is a mathe-
NAUTICAL impossibility, and a positive
discrimination against the weaker
eleven. The stronger team will be
unfairly aided in the allotment Of
time In just that degree that it can
more successfully accomplish the re-
CURED distance.
As fundamental proposition con-
tend that each team should be allow
ed an equal time period in which to
express It's efforts, and that these
efforts must be unrestrained by the
imposition OF artificial restraints. All
the above mentioned sports are based
on this elemental principle.
South Should Protest.
All the educational institutions OF
the South and all the smaller COL
leges In this country should make
a determined protest against the pres
ent code on the basis OF injustice
The open game is the only one that
the South can successfully master,
owing to the climatic conditions,
which do not permit of the endur-
ance test The South failed of sue
cess until the 1906 game was esta b.
lished. The smaller colleges should
demand the enactment of rule which
gives them an equal period OF play
ing time.
This mtsconception of the funda-
mental principles OF the game has
made necessary the huge volume OF
technical and artificial rules. They
cover sixty-f1ve pages of an ordi-
nary book and represent an expen-
diture Of some fourteen thousand
words. The simple truth seems to
be that We are back-end forward
or in the condition OF Dante's Am
phiarous-going backward, but try
ing to go forward
The opposition to the proposed
changes will undoubtedly raise the
objection that this is an attempt to
introduce English rugby. The facts
are quite to the contrary. since the
rules. and not the writer, have un-
American!zed and denaturalized the
old game OF American football There
is not one element OF the old game
that Is eliminated save that all brutal
conduct and brute force are scien-
tifcally done away with and the for
ward pass !s made a free agent and
the time Is equally shared by both
teams. II the forces of the attack,
the kick. the pass and the rush are
To be permitted at all, why not make
them free agents? Why restrict