The Washington times., 1917-11-04

suit But we have 80 far succeeded
in weathering all storms and in our
one big game to date-with Penn
state-found ourselves, as q team.
pretty well able to go the limit on
endurance.
Doing away with the training
table has had more far-reaching re-
suits than was supposed. It has put
the matter of taking care of ones
self UP to each individual, and the
players have been forced to solve this
problem themselves. This has been
a valuable lesson to them. And It
has very clearly drawn the line be-
tween the players who had their
heart and soul in the work OF max
ing the team a success and those who
viewed the season In another light.
After two months It Is not diff
cult for the coach to separate the
conscientious candidates from those
not caring about anything but their
own success in making the team. 1t
has not been q pleasant method OF
training for the hoy who wanted to
win his varsity letter and go no fur
ther.
With such advances in football and
with so many men playing this IL a
good year In which to make plans for
cleaning the game of all unnecessary
roughness. The rules are about all
that can be hoped for, hut there re-
mains, in too many cases, \ desire TO
play the rules to the limit and to
take advantage OF. them.
In short, there IL still too much un-
necessary roughness in the game.
Likewise, there is no doubt that the
bigger men coaching are using every
EFFORT to eradicate 1t. They need the
cooperation of everyone connected
with football to bring about this re-
suit.
Make Game RouEh,
The things that make football un-
necessarily rough are certain brutal
methods employed in tacklInE and in
breaking up q forward pass. OF
course there Is a tendency to clip a
man from behind, but the rules COM
mittee is getting after this sort OF
thing and by another year should have
It eliminated.
The method OF tackling which is
both brutal and unnecessary is the
use OF the knee in sliding into a run
ner who is being thrown or has been
thrown. While II is all well and good
to talk about the need of ground
rules on some fields to prevent play
ers from being thrown into fences
and stands there is Infinitely more
risk OF being used to stop runners
We have never had a player hurt on |
our field in the former way. In one
game this fall we had several hurt by
knee tacklers. A rule preventing
such measure, which has all the cdr |
marks OF German kultur. is not only |
necessary. but must be enforced.
Rough Forward Passeru.
There Is another kind OF unnecessary
roughness which must be eliminated. |
This is the method employed by too |
many teams in breaking up a forward |
pass. The back passing a ball is as
helpless when he delivers+t as Is the |
punter, yet the latter Is protected from |
even being touched by the opposition |
whereas the former is constantly being |
run into and knocked down.
To be sure such scheme OF defense |
VIII either put the player out OF the
game who makes the pass or so upset |
him that he cannot make a good pass.
But a team which practices such |
methods. as a way OF winning games,
should not schedule contests with the
irst team Of a rival college.
II 1t depends upon the injury OF op-
posing stars to win its games II should
1nly schedule games with those weaker
it can win from without
up the weaknesses and brutal
methods Of Its coaching system.
The unfortunate part about unneces-
'ary roughness is that It costs the team
1t dearly even when officials
ire lax. Let me give an example:
We played a game this fall and actu-
lily succeeded in making enough points