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Vol (II runner is tackled and held)
II runner is tackled and held. Ten yards has otherwise the rule remains. been increased of late years to twenty- At first the attack was weak, and the question of how to protect the goal resulted in sending too many men up into the line.
Gradually, however, experience taught us that the best defence was not to wait until keep him, if possible, from getting free of a man got a good start for a goal, but to the forward line-in other words, to tackle the runner behind his line and not wait for him to get through it before tackling him.
The tendency has been, therefore, in very recent years to lessen the number of men behind the line, and increase the number in the line, in order to crush the play of opponents before it is fairly started. This in its turn created the American interference.
The more effort made to crush a play in its incipiency, the greater the effort to protect the runner: hence interference, which, in its American elaboration, is off-side to English eyes. Interference, in a word, is protection of a runner, best assured by men going before him to tackle and get the U opposing players out of the way. Interference did not spring full-fledged into the American game; it came by degrees. Once established, however, the query was immediately raised of how much aid the interferers could give the runner? At first the use of hands was permitted, but it was finally determined that the runner could be aided to any extent provided hands and arms were not used. The ultra-development of interference created in turn momentum and mass plays, which consisted of grouping a body of men some distance back of the line, and starting the mass before the ball was put in play, so that by the time it reached the line and the ball had been passed, the group had of course acquired [FOOTBALL the last ten years that it would be an interesting computation to cast up the number of men playing the newer game in America.
It is safe to say that practically every school large enough to support any form of athletics, every college, every university in this country has one or more football elevens, besides which a large majority of the athletic clubs and many other clubs devoted to sport of one kind or another have an annual football schedule. These all play the Americanised Rugby Union.
During the last three years there have been spasmodic attempts to introduce Association football into parts of New England, especially in Massachusetts, where the mills furnish many young men who are eager for INTERFERENCE. great impetus, for the opponents were unable to go forward to meet it for fear of getting off-side. The momentum thus gained was almost impossible to check. This of course resulted in similar momentum tactics on the part of the defence, which for a couple of years-1893 and 1894made brute strength a very objectionable feature of American football.
In 1895 began legislation against momentum, mass and push plays, and the undue development of interference. This has resulted in several football congresses of American experts under the auspices of the University Athletic Club of New York, with the result that some stringent and wholesome legislation has been passed against momentum and mass plays. The same Rules Committee of this Club made provision for the greater protection of a man on a fair catch, and for the encouragement of kicking and a more open game generally.
The history of American University football is the history of American football. It has always been said that baseball is the national game of the United States, and undoubtedly such is the case; but football has grown so enormously in popularity in some kind of outdoor sport which does not demand the training of the Rugby game.
One organisation was perfected; but, although one occasionally sees incidental mention of it, Association has no place in American football, and the number of men who play it is comparatively insignificant.
Time of Play. - Two halves of thirty-five minutes each, with ten minutes intermission.
A down. The term used to indicate the number of attempts made to advance the ball. Each side has three tries in which to advance the ball five yards. The end of each try, i.e., when the ball is held by the opposing side, is a down. As soon as the five yards have been gained it is first down again.
Officials. One referee, who judges the position and the progress of the ball. One umpire, who judges the conduct of the players. Two linesmen, who mark the distance gained and lost, and are aids to the umpire.
CASPAR WHITNEY. (AN ENGLISH VIEW OF THE AMERICAN GAME.) When the history of the English game emerges from its somewhat nebulous and FOOTBALL] plebeian origins in the fourteenth century, which have great affinities to the primitive lacrosse, it may be traced at Rugby in the form which provided a nucleus for the play of the early Blackheath teams. But it was as late as 1849 before our Universities took it up, and it was not until 1873 that the first Oxford and Cambridge match was played. The dates are very similar in its history across the Atlantic. Football is known to have existed at Yale in 1840, but it was not till 1874 that that University beat Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers; and not until 1876 that matches between Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are recorded, just five years after the formation of our own Rugby Union, and contemporaneously his own side are to make, as much to deceive the enemy as to benefit themselves. This system of "signals" is very carefully practised in the greatest secrecy, generally behind a high palisade, so that no hostile eye may watch the evolutions to be used in the coming battle.
The sense in which the word "scrimmage" has just been used will be misleading to an English player, for by the reduction of the team, from fifteen to eleven, the original shoving mass of forwards has almost disappeared in American play. Attention has been concentrated on what is known as the "rush line." The arrangement of the men is almost entirely different; the snap-back (who is also called the COMING THROUGH THE SCRIMMAGE WITH THE BALL. with the first International match in which, at the suggestion of Scotland, our sides were reduced to fifteen men. To increase the pace of the game, the Americans reduced the number on each side still further, to eleven; but there imitation of the Association rules came to an end. The difficult question of what really constituted being "off-side" had soon been fairly settled by the early fifteens at our Universities, to whom omissions in the letter of their law mattered little in comparison with its accepted spirit. But as soon as the game was tried in the United States it appeared that being "off-side," that is, playing ahead of the ball, was inevitable with all American teams. The illegality was not merely so often practised, but was also so difficult to detect that the authorities were obliged to legalise it. To the resulting invention of the "snap-back," with all that follows from it, are due most of the distinguishing characteristics of American football. This player stands in front of the "scrimmage," holding the ball on the ground between his feet, and before "snapping" it back to his men he shouts a series of numbers (such as "39, 41, 26, 7"), which give the key to the evolutions that ،، centre-rusher ") has only the quarterback and the full-back directly behind him. The two half-backs are a little behind the quarter on each side. To the immediate right of the snap-back is the "right-guard," further on in the same line is the "righttackle," outside is the "right end-rusher." The "left-guard," "left-tackle," and "leftend" complete the line upon the other side. The team which has the ball arranges, by means of the "signals" before described, for the massing of this line on one point of the enemy's defence, and the tactics which are employed to get through need careful description.
The influence of the snap-back will at once be realised from the consideration that the moment he puts the ball into play through his legs behind him, he also makes six men besides himself immediately offside. The chief business of these men then becomes a general attack on some part of the enemy's line with the object, first, of clearing a path for the man who has to run with the ball, and, secondly, of keeping the opposing players from getting at the runner. This important part of the play is known as "interference"; and a comparison of Rules Nos. 21, 22, 23 in the U2 English code with Nos. 24, 25 in the American, is advised to all who desire further information on a complicated point.
After the "snap-back" had been evolved, further alterations in the old rules followed thick and fast. Americans have very thoroughly convinced their law-makers of the inadequacy of legal language as a vehicle for legislation, and the struggle between the inventive player and the technical phrase-monger is still in active progress. gress . Its details can be briefly sketched.
To stop men holding their opponents firmly while their own side did what they pleased with the ball, the use of the arms and hands [FOOTBALL accurate manipulation of the "scrimmage" was all that was needed to produce almost the same effects. These tendencies need no further illustration. It will be seen at once that such a thing as a combined rush of the forwards down the field, dribbling the ball at their feet, is unknown; that the long, low passes which Vassall introduced with us are unappreciated; that for the pleasant uncertainty and all the sudden opportunities of independent brilliant play outside the scrimmage has been substituted a cut-anddried system of "signals," "interference," and mass-plays," which have utterly changed the aspect of the game. 66 MAKING A TWENTY YARD DASH. for this purpose was abolished. It was, however, an easy step to form an impassable barrier of bodies (for the rule had no mention of "bodies") round the ball, and thus prevent the other side from getting at it. Progress might be impossible, but so was defeat as well. A rule was at once made that the ball must advance at least five yards in three "downs," or be taken back ten yards and given to the other side.
It was quite easy to avoid that; for if progress was essential, it should be made at any cost; and "flying wedges" were invented. Players were formed up some distance behind the line of play. At a given signal they dashed forward, and the momentum of their impact carried the man with the ball forward for the necessary distance. The other side never had chance. This would plainly not do; so the rule was made that only three men might get in motion before the ball came into play; but it was rapidly discovered that a more a cares Of late years the chief things to notice are still further additions to the legislation necessitated by the fatalities of 1909 and by the strong expression of public opinion they aroused, resulting in a charge of murder being brought in The American footballer 1910. much more for the end than for the means. A game is of little interest to him unless it has produced a victory, and the best parallel is to be found in professional Association football in England, where much the same motives guide the players.
Under the new rules, which will be even more astonishing to Englishmen than the old, the game is divided into four periods of fifteen minutes, with intervals of ten minutes between the first and second periods, and between the third and fourth, the interval between the second and third being fifteen minutes. This is some indication of the severity of the exertion called for. The FOREST HOG] off-side rules mentioned above (or rather the absence of any real "off-side" as we know it) have had their natural development in still more complications. The forward pass is permitted. But to be legally “ on the line of the scrimmage" a man must be within one foot of the line, and to receive a forward pass he must be one yard behind that line. Further, no one may receive a forward pass who is not one yard back, or occupies the position on the end of the line of scrimmage. There is another imaginary line in addition to this one-yard line, and that is five yards back of the line of scrimmage. No man may to a great extent the element of luck which heretofore has entered into the play.
Why it should be necessary to exclude luck as well as individual enterprise it is somewhat difficult to imagine. Further new rules prevent "interference" formed by men interlocking their arms, and also prevent the man who has the ball being helped or pushed by his friends. Also, a man must now have one foot on the ground when tackling, which must thoroughly interest the umpires. And no outside kick is allowed that does not travel at least twenty yards. This, again, needs an archangel to measure, it may be MASS PLAY. make a forward pass, nor may he kick the ball, unless he is behind this imaginary fiveyard line. Between this line and his scrimmage line he is allowed neither to kick nor to make a forward pass.
Hedged in by the restrictions placed on it, the forward pass, while still "a spectacular play," will not be the play of last year, so far as long throws are concerned. Now, a forward pass cannot be thrown more than twenty yards. If it goes beyond that distance the ball is dead and must be taken back. The ball can be thrown across the line at any point, and the thrower is no longer required to get the ball over at more than five yards from the centre of the scrimmage.
Anybody can get the ball in the territory lying within twenty yards of the scrimmage line in the opponents' side of the field. That space has been declared neutral ground.
But in the event of the ball being thrown beyond that distance it is dead and must be brought back. The new ruling will prevent thought. The coaches, however, are quite certain to be able to walk through this latest set of rules as easily as they did the old ones; and since any player who is tired may withdraw and be replaced by a fresh player, the game has really reached a category which does not admit of classification on this side of the Atlantic.
THEODORE ANDREA Cook.
Bibliography.-Football: The Rugby Game, H. Vassall (Bell), 1889; Football: The Association Game, C. W. Alcock (Bell), 1890; Association Football, N. L. Jackson (Newnes), 1899; Rules of the Association and Laws of the Game (Football Association), 1909; The Football Who's