San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-25
Sentiment Against Clipping
to Be Felt in 1928 Football

chance under any circumstances. And
the practice of the onside kick has
upon occasion caught one of these
waters" and made q touchdown on
him. This situation will be helped
slightly although not materially by
the elimination of both the five-yard
penalty for an offside player touching
the ball and also the alteration in the
rule so that touching the ball inside
the opponents 10-yard line no longer
results in a touchback.
Lessons Value of Accuracy,
But there will not be any marked
results from these except a lessening
OF the value of sus.s accurate punters
as kipke of Michigan, who could cut
the slde-line within the five-yard line
with his kick. 1t has been argued
that with these privileges of touching
the ball good punter and fast man
going down under the lick will result
in decided advantages to the attack.
But the writer does not think this will
be borne out very strongly in the play
itself for it pre-supposes a decidedly
tricky kicker and n mighty fast pair
OF ends. If kicker were as good
as that in placing his punts and the
ends were so extraordinarily fast and
clever in getting down the field, the
punter should send them as far and as
as straight down the field as possible
and count upon those star ends check
ing the catcher, besides giving him a
chance to muff the ball if he would !.
OF the same character with the
elimination Of the onside kick SO far
as radicalism is concerned is the new
permission to decline the penalty on
an illegal pass. While the outside
Kick is a generic features of the orig
lnal Rugby game, the edict that no
forward pass penalty could be declined
has stood in the American game ever
since the forward pass was introduced
into the play.
Good Teams Don't DO II.
The reason for this was that the
rule-makers did not dare introduce
such a provision until the throwing
OF the ball forward had been thor
oughly grated upon the game. Now
lhat this has transpired they evident
ly believe that the inconsistency of
permitting any other kind of a foul
penalty to be declined if it were to
the advantage of the offended side
and forbidding it to the intercepter
of a forward pass simply be,nuse the
PASS happened to be made illegally,
should be remedied. This is emf
rently proper but will not have very
much real effect upon the play as IL
legal forward passes are seldom made
by well-drilled teams. However, there
is just chance that this new ruling
might settle the issue in n game.
1t is well, too. that the rule-mak-
ers cleared up another point which
has sometimes given trouble BY dis
tinctly stating that handing the ball
forward is forward pass and to be
so ruled.
The rule providing that time shall
be takkn out during the try-for-point
after touchdown will serve to nc
tually increase the playing time con-
siderably in any game where scoring IL
frequent. 1t is consistent in one way
and quite homogeneous in ano1ler.
Time was taken out in n try for goa
from place-kick but. on the other hand
in the old days OF "punt-out" it was
not and. furthermore, the attempt by
rushing play to make this extra
point is surely actual playing by both
sides. However, such an attempt is
seldom seen and in fact with the sim
gle exception of that great Washing
ton and Lafayette game in
New York last year. the drop-kicl,
was practically the only means used
for scoring this extra point.
Put 1t Up to X 1eree.
When it came TO deciding to penal
ize a team for failure to appear on
time at the beginning of game. the
legislators were brought at once face
10 face with situation which has
occurred not merely in minor games
but also in some of the big ones !;
namely, the failure on the part of
train service or baggage connections.
Upon the occasion of visit of Yale
TO Princeton several years Nago, the
uniforms did not arrive on the train
with the players. And there have been
several cases of delayed trains. So the
rule-makprs. while quite satisfied from
the standpoint of consistency in leg
islating that team delaying the start
OF game should be penalized the
same as one delaying after intermis-
sion. acted very wisely in putting the
power in the hands of the referee to
determine whether the delay was of
such character as should be visited
with penalty or whether it was rea-
sonnble and unavoidable.
The clearing up Of the complica-
tons of more than one man signalling
Tor fair catch was more in the line
of Interpretation and does not yet
cntir"'r protect thn fickcr's side equal
ly with the receivers but il is only
right that every attcmnt should be
made TO properly nrotect che catcher.
Cruiser Race Friday.