The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-05

r
 1 the bigger men coaching are using every effort to eradicate it. They need
 the cooperation of everyone connected with football to bring about this re- suit
 UNNECESSARY ROUGHNESS The things that make fooball un- necessarily rough are certain brutal
 methods employed in tackling and in breaking up forward pass. Of course there is a tendency to clip a man from behind but the rules committee is getting after this sort of thing and by another year should have it elimi- mated.
 The method of tackling which is both brutal and unnecessary is the use of the knee in sliding into run ner who Is being thrown or has been thown. While it is all well and good to talk about the need of ground rules on some fields to prevent players from being thrown into fences and stands there is infinitely more risk of injury on the field where the knee is being used to stop runners. We have never had 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 a measure, which has all the ear marks of German kul- tur is not only necessary but must be enforced.
 There is another kind of unneces- sary roughness which must be elimi- mated. This is the method employed by too many teams in breaking up q forward pass. The back passing a ball is as helpless when he delivers it as is the puEter yet the latter is pro l. opposition whereas the former is con- stantly being run into and knocked down. To be sure such a scheme of defense will either put the player out of the game who makes the pass or so upset him that he cannot make good pass. But a team which practices such methods, as way of winning games. should not schedule contests with the first team of a rival college. If it de- bends upon the injury of opposing stars to win it's games it should only schedule games with those weaker ag- gregations it can win from without showing up the weaknesses and brutal methods of it's coaching system.
 CLAW GAME SUPPORTED
 The unfortunate part about unnec- essary roughness is that it costs the team practicing it dearly even when officials are lax. Let me give an eX- ample We played game this fall and actaully succeeded in making enough points in the first quarter to win it i1 spite of much unnecessary roughness in knee tackling which sent one of our best men to the side-lines. The play of the opponents was so markedly rough in the first half that our man. ager went to them between halves to inform them that unless they dropped that sort of football they would never be on our schedule in the future.
 For the remainder Of the game this eleven played football and played it with so much vim that we were most fortunate in winning. All of which goes to show that the slogan of George Woodruff, the old Yale guard who made Pennsylvania in football, Let the other team do the slugging and you do the scoring" has ever been the best policy. It. is impossible for football player to fight and play at the same time. As in all sports the player cannot do two things at the same time.
 In keeping with the spirit of the times we are glad to learn there will be no All American team, official, in formal military or otherwise, this sea- son. We also hope that the days of All-American teams are over for good and all. They were all right in the good old days when Harvard, Prince ton and Yale had all the material and all the system there was in football but now that the south and west and the other teams of the east are in the game with material and systems which rank second to none it is idle to discuss such space consuming fam toms, especially when so many All American players-never mentioned are lover there,"
 Copyright, 1917, by Sol Metzger.)