New-York tribune., 1911-12-24
c. Foster Sanford Hits from the
Shoulder in Demanding
Changes in Rules.
SAYS GAME is HAZARDOUS
Yales Player and Coach Makes
Suggestions for a Better
Contest and One That
Is Less Dangerous.
By G.. FOSTER SANFORD.
Yale's famous football coach.

copyright 1911. by the Tribune Association
For six years controversy OF alb
Sorbiue interest 10 hundreds Of thou
lands Of red blooded Americans has been
conducted along unfair lines. refer TO
The controversy over the merits and de-
merits Of intercollegiate football.
Controversies from their very nature
rresuppose argument, attack and coun-
Ter attack. ardent support of one side or
The other (often bigoted I'm the extremel
and as q cor )llary the exposition OF facts
logically arrayed either uttered in de-
bate or marshalled in print. The most
partisan advocate Of cause will usual
~ allow his opponent an opportunity TO
he heard, for a few moments at least.
The sense Of fair play Of the audience
or jury of the moment would cry down
the advocate unwilling TO grant his ad-
versary even an opportunity to set up
a premise.
Impelled by a sense Of the injustice,
the bigotry Of its decriers, 1 have al
WAYS believed that some one grounded
in a knowledge of the game and its
basics. it's benefits an its dangers
which should and could be eliminated
ought to come forth in a straight-from-
the-shoulder article which would tell the
truth and confound tho critics Of the
game OF football whose knowledge OF
such game was acquired by an ad-
vanced course In bean-bag at some fe-
male institute.
1t is an axiom that the duty Of class
in America IS shirked by each member
of such class. and so it is that no ardent
believer in football as a game manly
and beneficial has ever come into print
10 meet its critics or even to set forth
its Just defence. Accordingly, the errone-
Gus and illogical conclusions Of wtld-eyed
detractors and reformers. I'm that they
have passed unanswered and uncontro-
verted, have passed current as gospel
truth. SO set my lance at the motley
throng arrayed under the banner OF re-
form, throng motived for the most
part by self-advertisement and noto-
riety seeking, with a final appeal TO
Your sense of fair play.
Long Study of the Game.
The writer will yield to no one i'll his
knowledge of the history, the develop
ment and the tradition of football. AS
a boy he saw the game as it crystallized
into form from the indiscriminate he'll
ter-skelter Of the 70's, when the num-
ber OF the participants on each team or
side was limited solely by the number
OF those who desired to play. He had
the opportunity Of studying with the
perspective of an onloOker the very
play. its merits and defects, of one who
is now the Dephian oracle Of the game.
lie has watched closely the development
OF the game and early learned to distin-
guish between a system and stunt"
lie played in the SOS and 9Os, when the
players were nearly as Olympian as
now. He has coached the teams Of a
score of colleges and schools Of the fore
most rank. He has invented a great
part Of the termnolOgy Of football and
N the originator OF epigrammatic
methods applied TO coaching and Illus
tration His knowledge has been ac-
quired by observation Of hard fought
contests. East, West, North and South,
on a thousand fields of play. 1t is not
the knowledge acquired by you, Mr..
Critic. who have seen one match
between the teams representing two mill
towns in q game more like a blood feud
than a contest Of skill, or you, Mr.. Re-
former who have been allowed to keep
the downs for the second team in the
oaily practice at Freshwater College.
The so-called rules committee was the
direct outgrowth Of the old Intercolle-
giste Association, which fostered the
game i'm its infancy. Meetings Of repre-
sentatives from various colleges. held In
tee which was self-perpetuating and
which had general supervision over the
rules and the editing Of them.
This rules committee which has since
been 80 greatly enlarged, took, collec-
lively. in the winter of 1905, a deep
breath and dived out OF sight beneath
the wave Of public opinion, crested with
hysteris- When the heads of the old
committee emerged from the wrack in
the path Of this wave the Dignifed
Deans, sailing on rudderless craft,
threw the laundering sailors rope and
dragged them on board the "Safe-and-
Sane Reform" That ship. with her
augmented crew. now charts the course
Of football. and devious the course 1t
sails.
What can we expect Of crew where
in every man is a captain?
Where the Trouble Lay
Let as turn aside for a moment and,
conceding that the rule changes Of
1905-'O6 were forced By public opinion,
led by misinformed and hostile radicals,
let us see if we can discern what ex-
actIy was the cause Of the supreme in
terest Of the public in football the cause
Of the intense absorption Of al the spec
tators at a big match.
The all compelling motive, Of course,
that caused attendance upon the game
was the game itself the battle, the
strategy. the concerted effort OF eleven
rugged. highly trained specialists. the
primeyal instinct Of conflict. But the
compelling factor Of the play, as dis
tinguishable from the game, as such,
was the triumphant march across the
chalk lines and across the goal line Of
q powcrful. finished. irresistible offence.
The spectator. even the veriest tyro,
saw Il football machine get the ball fifty,
seventy. yes ninety yards from its op-
poueuts goal line: saw il gather itself
together and grow iu power; saw the
ouarterb9ck play on his machine as u