Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-11-04
BY j. w. Heisman.


team attempted a forward pass
close to the side line. A player
of the b team was near 1t and got
his hands on the ball, but failed to
hold it, whereupon 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 1t was awarded to the
A 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
1t 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 1t 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
1t hits the ground after a forward
pass, and any decision to be made on
the play must be based on what hap
pened to the ball PRIOR to its be-
coming dead.
Now it did not go 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
1t 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 on
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 B team
just because the bali was eventually
found outside the boundary line, for
it would not have been the case of a
forward pass going out of bounds,
but a fumbled ball going out Of
bounds. II 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 ac-
tually trying to catch the ball, but
merely trying to knock it out OF
bounds on the fly.
] 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 il would were he
to touch a punted ball in the field of
play and by so touching il cause It
to go out of bounds without first
touching the. ground. In this case It
would then be the ball of any man
who could get It,
IN the Penn-Indian game in Phil
delphia last Saturday, Marshall.
the Penn quarter, let an Indian punt
strike the ground and wabble around
indefinitely without making any at
tempt to fall on IL or to pick II up
The reason to the onlookers appeared
to be that big bad Injun was right
at his elbow waiting for him to try
that very thing when Git looked like)
said bad red man had his mind made
up to fall all over little Marshall and
mash him fiat as a founder. 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 (both ways) at these
personal jokes; hence his unwilling
ness to again be made a mattress Of
Being OFF, side the Carlisler could do
nothing either but dare Marshall to
pull the chestnuts out OF the fire; SO
the whole thing looked like a monkey
trying to snatch a cocoanut while the
elephant wasn't looking, with said eI-
ephant daring him to try.
Well, the rules don't say what to
do in a case like this. for. theoreti-
cally. somebody has simply got to
touch or take the ball before play
can go on The referee. coming up.
waited just an instant, grinned, then
promptly awarded the ball to Penn
for the first down, the same as though
Marshall had touched or secured It,
This, ! 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 10 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
predicament.
IN the Vanderbilt Michigan game a
a -.