ALLEGED FOOTBALL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7027, 15 January 1910, Page 13

ALLEGED FOOTBALL

AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES GIVE UP THE GAME.

In consequence of the death of Mr Archer Christian, following upon injuries received by him in a football match between Virginia University and Georgetown University, both .universities have decided that no more football shall be played (says a Washington message to the London ""Standard" of November 15th). ...

The death of Mr Archer Christian ia only one of an alarming number of fatalities which have occurred at what the Americans are pleased to call football (the "Standard" remarks). This

"football" is a fearsome thing. Brutal in every way, something more than, a fight, it is without a vestige of sport. It is incomnrehensiible, as it is degrading, to the Englishman. It is not even, a hustle—it is merely a maiming process : a trial of brute strength: a case of stop your man at all costs. "Down him! Pummel him !"—everything is in the game. It would take more space than one could reasonably fill to set out the number of deaths and accidents of varying degrees which have been caused by the "grille game." After, seeing, it the wonder is not that a player can escape serious accident, but how any man can steer clear of permanent injury. Tho idea of the thing is based on brutality. If it were merely a case of man to man. everything above board, it would, perhaps, have some redeeming feature; but the players come on to the field padded. Ears, nose, shoulders—;all limbs are guarded; the head in a, kind of cage; the body encased in a suit of armour.

An epidemio of broken legs. arms,.and deaths. has reigned among the university football teams of America for years. There have been many protests against the game's danger. Not long ago a serious attempt was made to haye,the laws governing the "sport" altered so as to reduce the weekly list of cripples;, but the weekly casualties still tell a gruesome story. Tho grille game is a combination of all sorts—;Rugby, in its earliest and most gruelling form; Association, with hacking, tripping, and--tho like, set down as a fine art, and not a little "scrapping." What. may be; de- . scribed as ' the equivalent to a Rugby scrimmage is a heap ; of men all of ;a tangle—a struggling, kicking human mass, with those underneath slowly, but surely, flattened. Accidents are counted as naught. When two teams enter the field each has any number, of reserve players dressed and ready to fill up the i gaps. A team is as an army:, if one I member falls in the fray .his comrade .presents himself for duty. It is posi sible that at the end of a j?ame not one , lof the original teams has survived.... The "grille" has been described as the last word in strenuousness;. It is more than that: it is a thing that kills. ./ It enjoys amazing popularity, and is a rich source of income to the universities, and the Virginia and Georgetown teams must, be • complimented upon the'l money sacrifice which they-have made in deciding that "no more football shall bo played." All the young men of America who want to engage in hard sport will do well to leave the "grille" severely alone. '' '. ■■■'.' ■■ ■:■;■ ■'- 'lt is said that the visit of the Pilgrims to the United States has done much to'show what real football is, and one is not surprised that.the game, as played by the English amateurs; is taking' a firm hold of the American school-, boy. The. decision of the Virginia and the . Georgetown Universities, coupled] . with the interest aroused :in many of the States of America by .the tour of the Pilgrims, will; do incalculable good.