The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-01-30
CHANGES IN FOOTBALL,
RULES ARE EXPECTED
No Limit 10 be Placed Forward Passes and Fifteen Yards
Gain in Five Downs May be Outcome of Meeting
in New York This Week

If the bali touches the ground he
hind the line of scrimmags. /; is lni-
mediately dead and counts as a down
at the spot. If he down Is the sixth
down. the ball goes tn the opponents;
otherwise to the side thai put the
hal1 IN Play. Exceptions; blocked
kick.)
Any or all Of the men back of the
offensive scFimmage line may he in
ssisasst atsi4 Y except toward their 6ppon-
ents goaD at the time when the bali
is put in play.
onside Kick same as last year q.
e, no 2o-yara restriction.1
one OF five center men may inter-
change with the man ordinarily play
ing back Of the line. comfy one sucn
interchange In any, single play.)
No limit on the number of forward
passes which may be made back of
the lfiIe lin any one play
Forward Pass Penalty.
Penalty for forward pass crossing
the line of scrimmage as follows: Ball
becomes dead as il passes scrimmage
line, and play counts as down. and
the ball to be pu in pay FIVE yards
back of the point where previously
put in play.
These changes. In addition to the
eight Items submitted to your COM
mittee, would make a safe, playable
game. affording both variety and OPP
portunity for strategy and scoring
We submit the following as a brief
summary of the reasons for the pro-
posed changes.
With eight yards to gain I'm three
downs and an unrestricted defense,
we see little or no possibility of end
running, because team would sell
dom waste a down by trying an end
run. The reason of this, OF course
is that the chances are more than
even that the attempted end run will
he stopped before it reaches the
scrimmage line, 1t is then second
down. with eight. yards to gain, which
means kick. or at best one play
into the line and then kick, There
fore, the question arose. Why not
double the distance and double the
number OF downs and get two or three
tries for an end run before losing pos
session of the bail? II any one of
these tries is sufficiently successful 10
net say. ten yards, there are still
enough downs left to AFFORD a fair
chance of getting the rest of the dis
lance through line plays. and thus re-
tain possession of the ball.
In other words. IL would tend to
encourage and put premium on at
tempted end running. and before the
season was over end running might
we'll be developed to higher degree
than ever knfore. End plays have
never had a fair chance lip to date.
because they We're so costly that they
were seldom dared. and. therefore.
this style of play never received much
development
Fifteen Yards In Five Downs.
-.svk, nd In n
bled means seventeen yards to gain
in six downs. This calls for. an aver
age of two and two-lhird yards a
down. Fifteen saras to gain in five
downs calls idr ttree yards q down,
a difference Of only twelve inches
Therefore, il Is suggested that the
distance be fifteen yards In FIVE downs,
thus preserving the muitipies of five,
to which we have SO long been accus-
toned.
In order to afford the maximum OF
opportunity for the offensc. your COM
mittee recommends allowing the play
ars back OF the line OF scrimnlage to
be in motion In any direction except