The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-15
Talking
IT OVER
WITH JOE wLLIA,As
NEW YORK. Nov. IS.

NEW YORK, NOV. 10.
THERE Is at hand an assortment
Il of letters from furious followers
# the frenzied game of football. E.
T.. for instance, thinks something
ought to be done about all the tie
.ames that are cluttering up the
.ecord. He says, in part:
Did Il ever occur to you that the field
roal Is Just as fascinating play as the
onward pass. and that II the field goal
eounted for four points instead Of three 1t
you'd be more important in the general
seneme OF things and more POPULAR
believe the rushing of the ball down
the ield twice and the scoring Of two field
goals, would be more noteworthy than the
scorinR Of one touchdown. which is very
apt to be the outcome OF luck anyway.
Al the present time with a team threat
enlng. say. on the 5-yard line with the
downs nt three and the distance TO be
gained at I'VE yards. It is almost GER
tainty that the next play will be pass.
Why not. II the circumstances are invit-
ing, a field goal7
The percentage always favors the sue
cess OF field goal over a pass. With the
field goals value increased to four points.
q team could afford to gamble on 1t with
frequency. Two Of them would be more
important than touchdown, and the
necessity OF trying for the extra point
would be eliminated. And In general
way SO would tie scores.
TOMMENT: There have been
~ lot Of tie scores this seaSon.
There are always a lot Of tie scores.
The total to date this season in i'm
portant games, at a hurried count,
is twenty-five. These include Army
Harvard, 1920: Fordham-Davis Elk
ms, 6-6; Detroit-Marquette, Sc; Il
linois- Iowa, TT; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
1918; Nebraska Missouri, TT;
Navy-Princeton, 1913; Boston Col
lege- Villanova, TT, and Yale-Mary-
land, 1913.
In addition there have been numerous
60 results. This list includes. Carnegie
Tech-W. and j.. Navy and Georgetown.
Ohio State and Indiana, Nebraska and
southern Methodlsts. Temple and W. and J.
TXTHAT effect a more generous
w application of the kicking arts
would have had on these scores is
something that can not be forecast.
1t also is important to remember
that field goals must register before
they can be counted. They look
easy, but they aren't. The Sugges-
ton that their value be increased
by a point or two has been made
before, but for some reason the idea
has never been able to command a
majority support.
II must be admitted of course that the
kicking arts are no longer in high favor.
The game has been drifting away from
the kick year by year. The open style of
play and forward pass was the beginning,
and when the goal posts were moved back
practically all the coaches stopped trying
to develop what used 10 be known as toe
artists.
UOU never read of any Brickleys
i or EckerSalls any more. Paul
Scull of Pennsylvania was the
only drop kicker of real class in
the east last season and I suppose
you'd have to say that Albie Booth,
the Yale pulmotor, is the best in
the east this year.
The fact Is coach who has a plain,
ordinary kicker capable of getting off
good punt every now and then considers
himself lucky. l suppose they still call 1t
football for the reason that the
Giants baseball field is called the Polo
Grounds.