The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-09

6SdSoH WILL see uHlNSISdl dppFoNdl
 Fly FRANK J. ("BUcK") o'NEILL
 Columbia Football Coach
 Coach o'Neill, author of this
 article. Is widely recognized as
 one of the most skillful football
 teachers of the country. A Will
 Hams graduate, where he was
 captain of his football team he -
 has developed remarkable elev- ems at Williams, Colgate and
 Syracuse in past years. He Is now in his third year as Colum- bias coach.-Editor's note.
 Despite the fact that there are many who believe that the present try for point system is not going to
 prove satisfactory. believe that be-
 fore the end of the present season
 has been reached, practically every coach and every close student of the
 game will be backing 1t to the limit. To me 1t seems to be very excellent,
 no matter what angle 1t Is considered from. and think that those who do
 not like 1t at the present time feel so only because they have not yet awak-
 ened to the great possibilities of the play.
 That Extra Point
 For years neither players. coaches nor fans have been satisfied with the
 method of adding the extra point at- ter the touchdown. Various methods
 were tried and still more were of- fered for triail but until the present
 season do not believe that any of them really proved to be successful.
 Perhaps 1t would be interesting to review the various methods that have been used and to consider their weak and strong points.
 ] ola Rules Poor
 When American football rules were first set down in a specific code tse touchdown counted four points and
 tho goal thereafter Of kicked) added another two points to the score. Drop hAShn SOuhbCo INV PpAht1s Ok atDh =
 little more than twice as much as they do at the present time com paratively speaking. But to return to the goal after tho touchdown. It
 was a place kick and the ball had to be placed on the ground at least 25
 yards back from the goal line and at
 point corresponding exactly to the nj uh xua dnWnad
 behind the line of scrlmmase. This
 rule was unchanged for number of years, but finally the yowls of dis satisfaction became so great that 1 change had to be made.
 The rules committee then decided 1 to shorten the distance to Is yards. count the successful effort not one point and increase the value of tho | touchdown to six. At the same time | the drop kick was made to count I only three points. However, save in | the changing of the drop kick valua- ] ton the principle of the goal kick 1 ing remained the same.
 The Punt Out
 | Contemporary with this play there l developed the punt-out. (Most fol- , lowers of the game are familiar with l this feature but for those who have 1 only recently taken an interest I will explain this feature) After the team scored a touchdown. if the ball had
 been carried over at far corner of the field, the scoring team had the choice of bringing the ball out to tho 15-yard line and trying the place. ment kick or of trying the punt-out
 which consisted of one player stand
 irg on or behind the goal line, kick ! lne the ball out to the rest of his
 tea1 mates who wore placed by their captain behind tho 15-yard line and So arranged that any man carrying she pal would be placed in an easy rositler 10 attempt a place kick. Tho play called for fair catch. If this was nlajs the placement kick was al- lowed 10 bo tried, otherwise the bah
 was considered dead and the teams lined up for the kickoff.
 The forsgorS rules were in vogue | for quite awhile. shen came tho farce ruling which preceded the present plan. To my mind putting the ball on the ls-ysrd limo and exactly be- 1 ween the zeal posts killed what 1 lliils argument remained in favor of l th oid goal after a touchdown idea. The hackers of the old method claimed that 1t was not 6 one-man play at all but that 1t took the com | bined efforts of the entire team to l put the ball over tho final line and | in such a position that the kicker would have a fair chance of making his try a successful one.
 Mere ChiId's Play
 However, putting the ball on a 1 line drawn directly between the cen ter of the goal posts left no further argument. It became purely one man play, and in most cases childs play at that. A school boy could kick goals without missing more than five out of 100 under that method. Where a team lost a game by the failure to kick the goal 1t was hard luck and nothing moro. Several defeats of the past season could be charged to this ruling. Under the present system. I think that the play ceases to be an in- dividual one. The entire 22 players are in motion and 1t calls for real skill and courage to boot the ball over the bars at such a time. espe- cially if the game happens to be tied at the time and that extra point may be the deciding one of the game. Another thing that must be kept In mind is the fact that while out of 10 tries for that extra point will pc maue by KICKS or one sort or an other; any plan can be used. This
 will give the coaches who dote on working out trick plays chance 70 | try them. For If the play should fail. the point Is lost, there Is no other
 risk. It Is a question of everything l to gain and nothing to lose. Before
 tho season is over expect that some l weird and mysterious plays will de- | velop. The present rule will without
 doubt give the lovers of the forward
 pass chance to put their new ideas