Word: ruled
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Most significant is the "dead fumble" ruling which provides that hereafter a fumbled ball is dead at the point of recovery, if recovered by the defensive team, and remains in possession of that team. Heretofore, fumbled punts and fumbled lateral passes have been dead, but fumbles in scrimmage have not, and complications have resulted. The new rule also applies to fumbles of all types of kicked balls and not merely to fumbled punts...
Football authorities differ as to the advisability of the now ruling. William J. Bingham 16, Director of Athletics, is among those who feel the "dead fumble" rule will rob the game of one of its biggest thrills. On the whole, however, opinion seems to favor this new evidence of the present tendency to sacrifice the spectacular in football in the interests of greater precision...
Continuing its effort of the last few years to eliminate the element of chance in gridiron contests, the national football rules committee announced yesterday that the chief result of a three-day secret session in Atlantic City was the adoption of a radical new rule making fumbled balls dead at the point of recovery, when recovered by the defensive team...
...general opinion among football coaches, it was said, was entirely favorable to the committee's decision. "The new rule," it was explained in a statement issued by the secretary, "will not apply in case of forward passing nor to backward passes which are intercepted before striking the ground, nor will it apply to blocked kicks, which will be played as heretofore...
...change. "It is unquestionably good," he remarked, "in that it will make the game a great deal fairer. Our team last season can recall occasions when an unfortunate fumble changed the whole score. The best team in the world is apt to lose through some unlucky break. The new rule will lessen such occurrences. But," he added, "it does so by sacrificing excitement. It seems to me that the present tendency calls for an excessive removal of chance. Breaks have a real place in a football game; they certainly give it a healthy tenseness; and I don't think...