Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-10-25
TO REWRITE
RULE BOOKS
Football Manual To
Be Boiled Down.,
And Clarified
BY FIELDING III. YOST
Athletics, u. of Michigan)


ANN ARB0R, Mich, Oct. 25.-t41
Rewriting and arrangement OF the
laws Of football is the years labor
specified for the rules committee and
the friends of the great fall game.
Last year agreement was reached
that the game as far as its rules
we're concerned, has reached a point
Of stability; that new Or changed
rules were unnecessary. Agreement
also was reached hat recodification
and Encouragement was desirable and
the football rules committee set aside
this year as the one for the forces
Of the game TO concentrate upon the
problem of elimination. This period
gave coaches and officials a complete
football season and the reconsider
ing period" afterward in which to
weigh the questions of rule better
ment.
In spite Of the fact that the foot
bail rules have lust growed" with
a section added here and there where
it seemed to fit, a study Of the rules
from the standpoint Of rearrange-
ment makes 1t very certain that re-
NAIlllk anu ItNOulAlCdNlOH Is QlLAf-
cult if the new arrangement is to be
better understood than the present
one.
The game at present is governed
by three sections; the general rules,
tw~enty-eight pictures and seventy in
terpretatiOns. Thirteen of these in
terpretations are not in the rule
book as printed, being made at u late
a., o.. !, a r.aassnr 80 Nkn r.,lnu ,or,r,ss
tee to consider questions raised dur
ing the spring football practice.
These interpretations, especially,
serve to eliminate all possibilities OF
controversies Ove meaning.
Codification would imply the bring
ing OF all items affecting an element
of the game together. The defini-
tions in the general rules, however,
affect many different sections and it
Is obviously impossible to repeat the
definition with each section one may
affect. At almost every turn the
present rules will challenge the best
minds Of the game TO find better
methods Of classification and simpli-
fication.
IL seems certain a royal, easy road
will not be found to make the foot
ball rules a simple lesson to the uni
Initiated. The rules, however written
or arranged, will need study by any
one who wishes to know all that
may happen in a football game. APP
parently this will be as necessary in
the future as now, and those who
have not given such long and careful
study to the rules should not as
sumo to have such expert knowledge
when officials make decisions.
While a committee has been APP
pointed from the membership of the
rules making organization to make
the revision and the logical arrange
ment' the committee in
the rules book il will welcome "con-
structive suggestions from friends Of
the game and students of the rules"
This brings to the assistance of the
committee one of the largest armies
Of aggressive young men in the land
today. In il are q thousand college
coaches ten thousand high school
coaches, a thousand officials who
work week by week in the college
games. Most of this army is college
trained; all have been players and all
are interested in the Interpretation
of the football playing code to the
end that it may be understood by
themselves. by the half million young
men that play the game and better
understood by the millions who
watch. seeking a thrill. il is true, but
also vitality interested in the why and
the how Of the playing spectacle.