El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-08

Reduction OF Time Between Periods
Is Benefit To Football Players

and second quarters and that between
the third and fourth quarters has beer
reduced to one minute this year. L
is enough. All that the players need
is time to run from one side of The
field to the other and assume theil
becoming chilled and continues the
game with the men in the best OF
condition to follow it 10 the finish.
Go to Nearest Official.
It will not be necessary this yeal
for a substitute player to run all over
the field to find a particular official
to whom to report. The moment that
the substitute is assigned to duty he
may race to the nearest official, and
it is the duty of the latter to stop the
game until the substitute is safely in
the team.
The time limit has been better de-
fined in regard to a fair catch The
rules now state explicitly that, II a
fair catch is being made when time
expires, the game shall be prolonged
until the side making the catch shall
have opportunity to try for goal. For
instance, If a punt out was being made
from behind the line and the ball hap
pired, the team in possession of the
ball is not to lose the game on the
moment that the watch points to the
expiration Of the contest, but is
granted the right to kick goal, which
is but fair, as kicking goal is really
accessory to and continuous with one
plav.
fhe team which loses the toss at the
beginning of the game is given the
option at the beginning of the second
half of kicking off the ball or taking
In other words. the team is not
compelled to kick off against a head
wind if the captain of the II prefers
to take the goal with the wind in his
favor and let the other side have the
Changing Goals.
There are some who seem to think
that this rule was unnecessary and
that SO percent of the captains of
the football elevens will elect to take
the kick off on the principle of first
having the ball in their possession.
Yet there have been football games
played where it is more than prob
able that a crafty and calculating cap
tain would have been quite willing to
see the ball get out of his possession
for a few moments to have later the
benefit of the wind and the coop
Grafton of a good punter.
Backs of the attacking side must
remember that when they are on the
line or within foot of the line, they
must face the opposing team as do
the forwards. In other words, there
can be no face about attitude by
which the back endeavors to make it
appear that the ball is to come to him
when the play will really be made
through other positions or around an
end.
Time is to be taken out Of the
game when the bail goes out of
bounds or when a penalty is inflicted
This is as it should be. So long as
the time element enters so largely
into football the actual time Of the
game should be made to conform as
nearly as possible to actual football
on the field That is, the plays should
be the test of time consumption. and
not the infliction of the penalties or
the hazards of the contest which
count nothing either one way or the
other. When the ball goes out of
bounds, for instance, it is simply an
absence of play, for neither the op-
posing nor the attacking side is con-
cerned in the least, except to get the
ball properly within the gridiron.
Keep Off Side Line.
The side line privileges for players
have been curtailed Only one man OF
either team may be allowed to walk
up and down the line during the game
That is, enough. The place for the
substitutes is on the bench and not
on the side line.
There is no longer a field judge.
The penalties in the game have been
and the work of the other Of
ficials made simpler. As a matter of
fact, the game for the last two years
had run wild with officials. -Four
were too many The smaller colleges
complained that they were made to
pay too much to get their games prop
erly handled and some of the larger
colleges looked askance at the steep
bills which were run up for the ser
vices Of officials.