 Hello there, this is Jimmy Powers coming your way with another story from the tumult and the shouting Hi there, this is Jimmy Powers transcribed once again I pick up the tumult and the shouting and open to the chapter headed the game of football an appraisal by Grantland rice and Will continue the narrative in first person I Saw my first game of football on Thanksgiving Day 1892 before I had reached the dignity of long trousers Vanderbilt met her staunch rival Siwani that day and won 12 to nothing I Have been playing Refereeing and covering football ever since in many respects. I grew up with the game I wasn't conscious of football back in 82 when Yale's Walder camp worked out team signals But I was knocking heads as a 10 year old when camp had his big guard Pudge Heffelfinger pulling out and leading interference in 1890 the same year that Eli's McClung Perfected the cutback on wide-breaking plays. I was conscious of watch the ball a camp byword for his crushing defensive lines In 1900 when cross-checking the first mousetrap became fashionable. I was a senior at Vanderbilt I saw the flying wedge as dreamed up by Yale's George Woodruff in 1893 become a murderous mass weapon that had to be outlawed Why I was a pea-green freshman when the six-man line with the center dropped out started the scrambling of defenses Bob Zupke's short spiral snap from center was newsworthy in 1906 as was the legalization of the forward pass Zup was the first to drop back his guards to protect against passes in 1919 the same year John Heisman divided the game into quarters In 1910 I thrilled to the power pop Warner achieved from his single-wing attack and a year later To the deception of pops double-wing prior to world war one Percy Houghton explained to me his conception of floating defensive tackles covering crashing ends and vice versa That was when Houghton first baffled him with his cycle of deceptive plays. I wrote about his will to win Applied psychology with which Houghton primed and rolled his Harvard teams Rockney shock troops were another psychological wrinkle Amazing pass patterns and the unending search for speed on the line where other Rockney moves But now we're into the modern era The point I'm stressing is that after centering much of my life around football much of the game still leaves me bewildered Due to the ingredients courage mental and physical condition Spirit and its terrific body contact which tends to sort the men from the boys football remains one of the great games of all time, but Football has one glaring weakness the game is built largely upon constant rule breaking such as holding Offside backs illegally in motion pass interference and other factors that play a big if illegal part in results The game has four officials who can't see or follow one-third of the rule infractions It is football's big weakness fielding Yoast told me I am certain that there is a penalty that could be called on every play Most of the penalties that take place are not seen or called, but the big point is they shouldn't be made in the first place How many times have you heard? There's a horn on the play that age old bleat that slows the average game Perhaps it slows the game for the spectator, but I've seen at least 50 important games lost or won Because the officials fail to call fouls that were easily detected from the press box high above the field I Found out that I could see what was happening from the press box much better than from any vantage point on the field as an official The official looking from ground level is too often cut off by one of the 22 players The forward pass brought in another official headache on pass interference one of the toughest of decisions to call correctly Football is loaded with fouls which coaches invent such as the fainting act Where time is running out the big excuse that these violations are used by more than 80% of the coaches is probably true It is also completely fallacious Most coaches in their frenzied desire to win at any cost Employ any known or possible act to win the game regardless of its legality for this I blame the majority of coaches not all of them They may all be decent honest people and most of them are but too many are split personalities Jekyll's during the week hides when Saturday's kickoff whistle blows Pressure from alumni and students and criticism from football writers Which doesn't happen too often crowds them into an untenable spot They're all supposed to win when but one team can win they forget that entirely Nothing makes me sore then to have a coach say sure. I did it. I broke the rule, but so does every coach in the country It is like a murderer's defense sure. I killed them, but there are 10,000 killers who do just as bad It has been the idea of too many coaches that the main offense or penalty in breaking a rule was to be caught If you can get away with it fine, but don't get caught. I Don't know of any coach who spends any amount of time in teaching his squad not to hold not to be offside Not to consciously break any rule a golfer who sees his ball move But who doesn't call the penalty is a cheater the player who does the same in football Holds or gets offside and gets away with it is a hero. Can you imagine a big tackle saying that game doesn't count? I held on the play Years ago. I ran across a fine young tackle playing on a glamour professional team. Good work. I said after a particular game Not yet. He said I don't know enough. What do you mean? I said about holding all the older fellows know all the tricks They'll grab you by the pants for just a split second. This throws you off balance, but they never get caught It takes only a split second Do all linemen hold I said Every good one I've played against he said they are trained that way. I'm not too good yet I've been caught three times this season and the coach didn't like that 45 yards. It cost us Coaches forget that a holding penalty an offside or some other penalty may offset an 80 yard run or a touchdown effort They should be the most ethical sports directors. We have they are playing a game full of dynamite on the side of fouls Players should be thoroughly trained in not breaking the rules While many coaches may be ethical a great many still follow the old slogan of winning at any cost No matter what rules are involved when a coach has a bad team. He will stay jokingly. I'm building character this year There is no place for a joke in this situation a coach that isn't building character should be fired No matter if he wins every game He is doing far more harm than good if football isn't character building. It is no game to be played Football is a peculiar game featuring 22 contestants on the same field Unusually keyed up and ready for mayhem. It is a tough game to control We have no special quarrel with the over anxious player who is offside or who holds an opponent But there are entirely too many foul moves that are deliberate. There are too many foul actions that lead to injuries Any number of leading stars have told me there is no excuse for excessive roughness for the deliberate foul tactics So often employed this goes for both college and pro especially pro I can't see any reason for so much illegal and unnecessary roughness Otto Graham one of the game's best tells Tim Cohane one of the game's soundest critics Football one of the greatest games can be made greater only if it's cleaned up and protected It has taken more punishment than boxing has and boxing on the average doesn't deserve to be mentioned with any decent sport comparatively speaking Football is in an entirely different setting It has practically none of the thugs crooks cheaters bums and chisels that boxing knows to a large degree Most of the people connected with football college and pro are decent citizens their mistakes are not connected with boxing's Navery they are merely connected with football's frenzy to win regardless of hiring players Recruiting stars even regardless of the rules they play by football must change its ways in this respect Did you ever hear of any scandal connected with Newt Rockney and the four horsemen with red grains the galloping ghost? I will stand for the fierce and continued spirit of Notre Dame teams They have led the list through the years Spirit is the most vital of all football factors They got this from the fathers at Notre Dame and from Newt Rockney. It can't and won't be destroyed But such teams as Notre Dame, Michigan Yale Princeton Southern, California, Tennessee Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Duke, Texas and the others must see to it that football is played in the spirit of the rules that it is kept Clean from hypocrisy and dirt and placed on a high level of decency in every way Otherwise football will pass and be forgotten The keenness to win the will to win the desire to win is important in football I'll admit I have hammered on these points for over 40 years without making much of a dent the desire to win Even illegally is too great, but if big changes critical changes are not made soon Football will die through its unwillingness to face up to its greatest mistake Now this is Jimmy Powers transcribe saying that's all for now But I'll be back again real soon with another Grantland rice story from the tumult and the shouting until then so long