FOOTBALL RULES COMMITTEE

No radical changes were made in the playing rules for football by the Football Rules Committee which met recently at the Hotel Manhattan, New York. Several new rules were added and the phraseology of some of the old ones was changed, but no action was taken which would affect the general style of play. The Committee, in which W.T. Reid, Jr., '01 represented the University, voted that a more open game than has been played in the past few years would be advisable, but after three hours discussion could not agree upon any plan to accomplish it.

To preserve a straight scrimmage line the following rule was adopted: "A player shall be considered to be on the line of scrimmage, if he has his head, foot or hand up to, or within one foot of, an imaginary line drawn through the forward part of the ball and parallel to the goal line. He must also be outside the player nearest him and between him and the snapper-back. 'Outside' means both feet outside of the outside foot of this man." Another rule was passed ordering the referee to blow his whistle as soon as the forward progress of the ball is stopped. The object of this rule is to prevent members of one team from stealing the ball from their opponents. The penalty for coaching from the side lines was increased from five to ten yards. Also, it was voted that "no player shall be out of bounds at the time when the ball is put into play," but no player will be prevented from going outside of the field of play at any other time during a game. Another rule was made which will allow an injured player to be attended upon the field of play by one representative of his own team only, provided that this representative shall have obtained the consent of the umpire. The rule concludes: "This representative need not always be the same person. No persons other than the players, officials, the representative mentioned above, or an incoming substitute shall at any time come upon the field of play." The last rule passed was as follows: "The proper officials may give the approximate time at the request of either captain at any time during the game. The captain, however, may not ask this more than three times within the last five minutes of play."