The Washington times., 1932-11-02
MITTE
To PROBE
CAUSE
BY FRANK G. NIENKE

Any grammar school lass real.
a7es, after one or two glances at a
football affair. that the reason for
SO many injuries and deaths is
due to the unalloyed roughness
which the rules permit.
II q child-like mind can grasp
this situation, it would seem that
noted educators and men who
have devoted themselves to one
phase or another Of gridiron &C.
tivitieS. should know to utter com.
pleteness why human bodies are
wrecked in the collisions that are
part Of every football play.
However, the dear public is now
Informed through DR.. J. B. Nash,
Of the School Of Education, at
New York University, that a COM
mittee consisting of 81 nationally
known college presidents, execu-
EiveS or laymen with knowledge
of the game, will investigate as to
the reasons for injuries on foot
ban battlefields.
Carnage Inescapable
This committee cannot achieve
any other conclusion than that
of the grammar school child;
that carnage is so great simply
because in football it is ines
lcapable.
The rules of the game permit
Eackiers to grab bah carrier
from any angle that they find
dt possible and smash him to
earth with all the power they
can summon. The regulations
governing scrimmage call for
enemy Ii1leSmen to catapult into
each other with all bodily
strength, with the sole intent Of
crumpling the other in such
fashion that he cannot be q men,
ace to the object of the oppos-
ing squad.
It is inevitable that in game
like football, where giant men
go crashing into each other. or
spill one another to the earth,
or hurl their bodies at each other
either in an effort to take out"
@ potential tacklar, or sprawl an
Onrushing pigskin lugger, there
must be injuries and deaths.
Human bodies were not created
so that they could Withstand an
unlimited amount of battering.
Bones are stout enough to resist
the ordinary shocks that life
brings, but they cannot be eX.s
pected to remain unshattered
when they are subjected to all
the devastating punishment that
inevitably comes during a foot
ball season.
Easily Determined
When youngsters become part
and parcel Of a football eleven
which has, as its basic principle
of play. the' downing of a ball
carrier or the shocking into sub
mission of an opposition athlete,
then it is quite unnecessary for
educators or laymen with football
minds to work themselves into
an investigating froth.
It Is no more difficult to de-
Eermine why injuries and deaths
result from football struggles
than it is to grope for reasons
why human stomach cannot
Withstand the thrust Of a Sti-
Eletto, or the torso or skull bounce
black a piece of hurting shrap-
mel, or a well aimed bullet.
! So this committee, named with
much trumpeting and fanfare, is
destined to accomplish nothing Of
more value in eliminating death
and injury from football than it
| would achiece II it decided to find
out the sum total Of 2 plus 2.
Needs Supervisors
What football needs Is a super
|. vising committee which will de-
Eermine how to eliminate the seri-
Gus injuries and the ever-increas-
ing death toll, and then enforce
its humane will upon the rule
makers of the game.
Why this is not done, with col
1ege presidents from one end of
the land to the other decrying the
brutality of football, and reg
istering anguish, and grief over
the fatalities and the crippling,
constitutes one of the major mys-
tertes in athletic realms.