MANY DEATHS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 208, 27 April 1932, Page 2

MANY DEATHS

SERIOUS ACCIDENTS IN AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 21 IN ONE SEASON. American football is on its trial as a result of the unprecedented toll of life which it has taken this season. Defenders 0f the game admit that 21 deaths may be attributed to the gamfe, and other estimates range to more than 50. Phe demand for spectacular sport rules out English Rugby as too dull, but in the interest of life and limb it has heen suggested that this code be adopted -until some less warlike game than the present can he devised. "Roothall is now regarded so dangerous a sport, that one company no longer will issue accident policies to anyone who plays the game," has declared a leading insurance inanager. "Had it not been for such a decision, the insurance companies would have paid out huge damages for deaths and injuries in 1931. "The football player now comes under the classification of individuals engaged in one of the most dangerous occupations." Responding to the public outcry, the rules committee already has overhauled the game, but their reeomihendations have been given a mixed reception, and the controversy still rages. "It was all good, clean, innocent fun," declares a defender of the existihg code. "The boys never did mean to hurt each other, hut simply waxed a little over-enthusiastic from time to time."