The FootBall Season in Retrospect.

The season of 1889 has been a successful one for football. The game has not only grown in popular favor, but there has been a marked improvement in the general playing. The scores made in the intercollegiate league show this development in the playing of all the teams, and a tendency on the part of all to play an aggressive game. Last year the winning elevens, in almost every case, shut out their opponents, and Yale did not have a point scored against her during the entire season; but this year the stronger teams have not been able to prevent the weaker ones from scoring, and the following schedule of points scored shows that all the teams scored in at least two games:

The Week's Sport, in an interesting summary of the season's work, says: The style of play has not materially altered from that of last season, except that kicking has become more popular and effective. Last year it was the common practice never to kick until forced by the third down; this year many a good punt has been put in at the second down, and some even at the first. The tackling has improved, and there are today almost no poor tacklers on any of the association teams. The running would not have been by any means able to keep pace with this had it not been for interference. This system of assistance to a runner, which has come to be known as interference, is the real feature of the season's work. Last year there was a little of it, but the runners who could take advantage of it were few, and the men who could perform it well were less, so that it made no strong impression. The games of this fall have been replete with it.

The writer in discussing this style of play takes grounds against it, alleging that it is a kind of off side play, that it leads to personal contact of players not having the ball and hence to slugging; and that it has not been made necessary by the natural growth of the game, but is a radical departure from the true theory of the game. In the face of this it cannot be denied that the game has this year been comparatively free form slugging, and it may be doubted whether with a competent umpire this disagreeable feature would be any more characteristic of the game as played this year than as played in previous years. It is also true that interference has added much to the interest of the game from a spectator's standpoint, and a great many real lovers of the game would be sorry to see it forbidden. There is one species of offside play, however, which we will all agree should be abolished, and that is interference with the ball while it is being put in play. The rushers are allowed entirely too much license in this respect now, and the result is disagreeable and unnecessary delay of the game.