Evening star., 1950-10-25

private conversation.
Whas they all overlook is this
football is not a game that lends
itself to the operation of officials.
You have % men on the field,
widely scattered, all over the lot,
any one of them quite willing to
face the chance for any penalty
that might help win the game.
AS Hurry-Up Yost once said to
me-"There are at least one or
two penalties incurred on every
play in football. There are off,
sides. There is holding, secret or
otherwise. There is always some
form of rule breaking. All the
officials can do is to watch for
penalties that affect the play
directly"
In the course of one season
after another, have seen penal
ties that changed the course of
four or five games a year. I
have seen many penalties that
were not called but that directly
affected the turn of the game.
These were shown in motion pic
lures later. Some of them were
glaring infractions, but unseen
by the officials.
Can't Be Judged on Field.
1t so happened that 7 worked
in the South for many years as
referee. umpire and field Judge.
1t was then I made up my mind
that football was not a game that
could be handled efficiently on
the field. I have never changed
my mind since.
No pair of eyes doubled and
redoubled can follow all that
takes place. Pass interference
alone could drive any set of Off
cials raving mad. I have shown
slow motion pictures of such
plays to many officials whose rul-
ing in the game were at variance
with the camera portrayal. They
were, of course, guessing.
"Backfield in motion" is an
other problem that keeps coaches
and officials in frantic state of
mind. 1t is a split-second deci-
sion and the human eye isn't
equipped for split seconds. The
hand-and the foot-are both
quicker than the human eye,
which is never too fast. Were 1t
otherwise, magicians would starve
to death. Yet the official must
work with his eyes, which are not
capable of handling the job.
Football is by all odds the
toughest of all games for any set
of officials to handle.
Baseball Comparative Holiday.
Baseball is a holiday in COM
parison. The umpire today-or
four of them-knows where to
be and there can only be two men
involved right under his nose
the runner and the fielder. But
with % men scattered all over a
gridiron-from SO to 100 yards
apart-all with a little honest lar
ceny in their hearts-no set of
officials could cover this ground.
I have seen too many motion pic
lures of the mistakes made-mis-
takes that cost games.
But the main fault is with the
structure of football itself, not
with the officials. No set of Off
cials in any game works harder,
trains harder. or tries harder to
handle an impossible job. 1t is an
impossible job on many occasions
where the human eye falls down
completely. In sitting up in a
press box above the field, you fire.
quently see plays clearly that Off
cials on the field must miss with
their vision shut off by interven-
ing players.
The worst place to see football
game is from the bench. The level
view is impossible. That is why
scouts, helping to direct the play,
move to some elevated spot and
use their phones from above the
field. Football officials, however,
work on this level range. One
official, working above the field,
could see twice as much.
Coaches should understand the
fault isn't with the officials. It is
with the game itself. And the
coaches could do a much better
job in training their men to play
the game by the rules, which so
few coaches do. Ofside, holding,
starting too quickly in the back
field are rule infractions that right
coaching could reduce. Here is a
case where the coaches, the Off
Gals. the players and the game are
all at fault.
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