Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-11-05
By j. w. Heisman.
7 N a recent football game the A
team attempted a forward pass

team attempted a forward pass
close to the side line. A player
of the B team was near it and got
his. hands on the ball but failed to
hold it, wheFeupon it fell to the
ground in the field of play, then rolled
out of bounds about ten yards ahead
of the spot from which it had been
snapped at the beginning of the down.
A player of the A team fell on it out
Of bounds and it was awarded to the
team at the spot where it went
out of bounds.
The decision, in my opinion. was
partly correct and partly incorrect.
1t was AS ball, all right; not merely
because a member of the A team fell
on it, but because it was the case of
an incompleted forward pass, and as
it was not made on fourth down the
ball remains with the team making
the pass.
BUT it should not have been given
the A team to put into play at the
spot where it went out of bounds; it
should have gone back to the spot
whence it was put = in play-ten
yards farther back. The Idea is that
the ball is dead the VERY INSTANT
it hits the ground after a forward
pass, and any decision to be made on
the play must be based eH what hap
pened to the ball PRIOR to its be-
coming dead.
Now, it did not so out of the field
of play until after it became dead,
and therefore the fact that it did sub
sequently go out of the field and was
afterwards fallen on by this man or
that man has nothing whatever to do
with the case. The instant the ball
struck the ground. after the tumble,
it was a dead ball an inCompleted
pass, and should have been put in
play again from the point of the pre-
Vious down, the offensive team sim
ply losing the down.
But had the ball, after being FUN
bled, gone over the boundary line or
the fly and thus struck the ground
out of bounds first what would have
been the decision? Well, you could
hardly have given it to the 3 team.
just because the ball was eventually
found outside the boundary line, for
1t would not have been the case of a
forward pass going out of bounds,
but a furnbled ball geing out of
bounds. If we regard the play other
wise we should on all such occasions
witness the man of the B team (at-
tempting to make the catch) not ae-
tually trying to catch the bali but
bounds on the fly.
7 should, therefore, say that the
fact that the b player touched the
ball prior to its going out Of bounds
operates to put all the A players on
side, the same as it would were he
to touch a punted ball in the field Of
play and by so touching it cause il
to ga out ef hounds without frst
touching the ground In this case it
would then be the ball Of any man
who could get 1t.
IN the Penn Indian game in Phil
delphia last Saturday, Marshall,
the Penn quarter, let an Indian punt
strike the ground and Wahble around
indefinitely without making any at
tempt TO fall on it or to pick it UP.
The reason to the 0Hloekers appeared
to be that a big bad Injun was right
at his elbow waiting for him to try
that very thing when cit looked like)
said bad red man had his mind made
up to fall all over little Marshall and
mash him fat as a fQunder Mar
shall had had several of these little
pleasantries-or liberties, as you
please-taken with him already in
the game, and he was beginning to
get little sore (bQth WaYsl at these
personal jokes; hence his unwilling
ness to again be made a mattress OF.
Being off side the CarlisleT could do
nothing either but dare Marshall to
pull the chestn ITS out Of the fire; so
the whole thing looked like a monkey
trying to snatch Cocoanut while the
elephant wasn't looking, with said ell
ephant daring him to try.
Well, the rules don't say what to
do in q case Ike this, for. theoreti-
cally, somebody has simply got to
touch or take the bah before play
can go on. The referee, coming up,
waited just an instant, grinned, then
promptly awarded the bail to Penn
for the first down, the same as though
Marshall had touched or secured It.
This, I submit, was quite the proper
thing TO do. When the rules do not
cover a certain point in football, or
In any other game. for that matter,
the referee must use common sense
and rule according to the spirit of the
play and the game; and that this
referee did. The point may serve some
day to help some other official how
to make up his mind in a similar
pTedieament.
IN the Vanderbilt Michigan game a
novel situation came up, I under
ctr Ltr