FOOTBALL ON TRIAL

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1932, Page 5

FOOTBALL ON TRIAL

GAME IN UNITED STATES.

HEAVY LIST OF CASUALTIES.

New York, April 14.

American football is on its trial as a result of the unprecedented toll of life it has taken this season. Defenders of the game admit that 21 deaths may be attributed to it, and others estimate them at more than 50.

The demand for spectacular sport rules out .Rugby as too dull, but- in the interest of life and limb it has been suggested that this code De adopted until some less “warlike” game than the present can be devised. “Football is now regarded as so dangerous a sport that one company no longer will issue accident policies to anyone who plays the game,” declared a ■ leading insurance manager. • “Had it not been for that decision, the insurance companies would have paid out huge damages for deaths and injuries in 1931. Football players now come 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 its recommendations have been given a mixed reception, and the controversy still rages. “It was all good, clean, innocent fun,” declares a defender of the existing code. “The boys never meant to hurt each other, but simply waxed a little over-enthusiastic from tune .to time.”/.__ l _i. _j _■ _