Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-02-08
CHANGES ARE MADE
IN FOOTBALL RULES
Rules Committee Made Some Atera-
tons Which Fans Will Be Glad
to Keep Track of

The following changes of the foot
ball rules have been made and The
Herald prints them for the benefit
of it's readers:
1.-The playing field, now 10 yards
in length, will be shortened to an
even 100 yards.
This change in itself is not vital,
but is made in order to make posi-
BILE on small ground an extension of
territory in which the forward pass
may be used.
"A zone of 10 yards width be
yond the goal line is established. The
purpose of this is to provide ample
space for execution of the forward
pass and scoring on a pass made
across the goal line into this zone
is permitted.
3-The number of downs" to gain
10 yards is increased by one, and the
offense will now be allowed four in
stead of three.
4-The onside kick is eliminated
Touchdown Now Worth Six
5-The value of touchdown is in
creased from five points to six points,
the goal from touchdown and other
scores standing as at present.
6-The 20-yard zone is which the
present rules now provide restrictions
to interference with the forward pass
is eliminated, so that the restrictions
apply now to any part of the field
AFTER touch back the ball will
be put in play from the 20 yard line
instead of the 25-yard line.
S-On kickoff the ball, instead of
being in play in the center of the
field, will be put in play from the
4O-yard line of the team kicking off.
Taking into consideration the short
ening of the field and this change in
the rules the kickoff distance is leng
thened by five yards.
Field Judge Eliminated
9.-The field judge is eliminated.
The head linesman hereafter will keep
time and be Judge of offside plays in
the line of scrimmage.
1O-The number of men allowed on
the side lines, now three, will be re-
duced to one for each team.
11-Provision will be made that
bounding ball can not score a legiti-
mate goal.
12-The interval between the first
and second and the third and fourth
periods is reduced from two minutes
to one minute.
f. H. Hall of Dartmouth, chairman
of the committee, announced the sub
stance of these changes last week.
None of them has been put in code
form, but Chairman Hall said they
were all unanimously adopted and
would be incorporated in the 1912
rules. A committee was named to
codify the new rules and instructed
to have them ready as soon as pos
sible in order that they might be
circulated and studied before the sea
son begins.
This committee includes Walter
Camp of Yale, Percy Haughton of
Harvard and William Morice of Penn
sylvania.
Helps Out the Offense
The principal Improvement expect
ed of the new rules is equalization of
the chances of the offensive and de-
fensive teams. 1t has long been con-
tended that the defense was too pow
erful especially when close to it's
goal line.
The allowing Of touchdown on a
forward pass across the goal line is
expected greatly to relieve this con-
dition. Addition of point to the
value of touchdown is intended to
make the comparative values of the
touchdown and the goal from the field
substantially what they were before
the recent high development of the
latter play.
In considering the addition Of an
extra down, the question arose as to
whether it would not bring back the
old pounding attack, but the commit
tee felt it was not likely to have that
tendency, in view of the fact that there
was now no pushing and pulling in
the game.
One of the minor changes will be
a provisions that the loser Of the toss
at the commencement of the game,
will have his choice at the start Of
the second half as to whether his
team shall kick OF.
Including the Wedding Fee.
Mrs. Chubb with newspaper)-I see