FOOTBALL DISCUSSION.

One of the minor changes suggested by the Football Rules Committee that is worth serious consideration is the one in regard to a change in the length of the game from thirty-five to thirty minutes and the division of the periods. It is suggested that the game be split into four periods of fifteen minutes each, with five-minute intermissions between the first and second, and between the third and fourth periods. Such a change would give much less occasion for players to become exhausted or "groggy." The two extra five-minute intermissions would give exhausted or injured players a chance to recuperate, and might often be the means of avoiding serious accidents. Serious accidents are much more likely to happen to men in a played-out condition, when they are unable to protect themselves.

The adoption of such a rule would almost necessarily mean the abandonment of the present system of changing goals after each score, in favor of changing goals after each intermission, thus giving each side fifteen minutes of each period with the wind and fifteen minutes against the wind. Probably it would also be desirable that at the end of the two short intermissions play should not be resumed by a kick-off, but by a scrimmage, the possession of the ball, the down, and the distance to be gained to remain the same as before the intermission. Otherwise a series of plays tending directly forward a score but requiring considerable time to work out, might go for nothing.