BROKEN NECKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 149, 16 February 1932, Page 7

BROKEN NECKS

RUGBY ADVOCATED AMERICAN FOOTBALL PRQVES TO BE A DANGEROUS GAME. DEATH-ROLL INCREASING. Every year as the numher of deaths increases on the American football field, suggestions are made for rendering the game less dangerous. This year the death of a cadet from West Point — the American Sandhurst • — in a match against Yale University, inspired the suggestion in a New Haven newspaper that English Rugby be substituted for the American game. The English game was played for several years on the Pacific coast, but was abandoned in order that matches could he played with the Eastern Universities. In 1930 there were 13 deaths on the football field. Last year, up to the beginning of December, there were seven, but the season was not yet over. It is only when a death oceurs through an injury in one of the major matches, however, that it attracts widespread attention. The death of the West Point player was followed by cditorials in the leading metropolitan papers, most of them following the line that the value of the game depended upon the spice of danger which entered into it. The New Haven newspaper, however, declared: "The cry now from all sections of the country is for the English game and the banning of our warlike type, at least until we can be assured that it has been so remodelled as to make it fit for our young men to play." The trouble, however, is not so much with the game itself, as with the way it is played, says the Washington correspondent of the Morning Post. It is not a change of rules which is required, but a change of spirit. The first thing which an American football reformer should do is to strip the young men of their padded defensive armour, which is a danger rather than a protection. The writer says: "Without the helmet an American player would think twice before making a head-on tackle, and without his pads the man tackled would be more ready to swerve instead of meeting his taekler head-on, knee against skull. The majority of deaths on the football field it might be noted, are due to broken neeks. "The second thing the reformer should do would be to dismiss the highly-paid coaches. A coach's job is to train his team to win matches. If it does not win matches lie might lose his job. As long as the coach's influence is there, winning the match will remain more important than playing the game. "A third reform which would make the game more civilised would be the abolition of substitutes. When a player realised that he had to last the full length of the game, and that if he were laid out his side would suffer, he would be more careful. At present there is no limit to the number of substitutes who can he sent on, the only restriction being that the same man cannot he sent on twice in the same half. "The American game could be made less violent without any alteration in the rules, while the English game played in the American manner could be made just as dangerous." C? ti * ■ ii m