THE ART OF LINE PLAYING
On Wednesday a stranger appeared at practice. He was a large,
broad-shouldered man of perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six years, with a
jovial voice and a pleasant smile. He wore a nondescript assortment of
football togs among which was a blue sweater bearing a white Y. He did
not, however, retain the sweater long, for five minutes after practice
had started he was down by the farther goal in charge of a bunch of
guards and tackles. With the sweater he seemed to have discarded the
jovial voice and the pleasant smile. Presently the rumor spread that
the stranger was one Myers, an Alton guard of some years before and,
more recently, _the_ Myers who had helped put Yale back on the football
map. Also, rumor had it, he was to remain at Alton until the Kenly game
and take charge of the linemen.
That afternoon Jim added not a little to his knowledge of playing in
the line. Myers spent much time showing his charges how to stand, both
on attack and defense. After Hick Powers, invited by the coach to take
his position on attack, had set himself, Myers charged into him and
sent him sprawling on his back. “There you are,” said Myers. “You
were all right for a straight-on attack, but your feet were too much
on a line for a side-swipe. You can’t always tell how the other fellow
is going to come at you. Try it again. Spread wider. All right. Hold
it! Not too much weight on your hand, though. Just steady yourself
with your finger-tips. Now you fellows study that position. You see
that this man is set so that no matter how I may come at him he’s got
stability. This right foot is far enough behind the left so that I
can’t throw him off his balance by going straight into him, and far
enough to the right so that I can’t throw him to his left by charging
him sidewise. All of you take that stance. You fourth chap there, bring
that rear foot out more. That’s better. Now look at your feet and see
how you’re standing. Got it? Good! One thing more before we drop the
attack position. Don’t anchor yourself by putting your weight on your
hands. What you are doing is taking the position of a sprinter, and
the sprinter doesn’t put the weight of his upper body on his hands. If
he did he’d do one of two things when the pistol barked; he’d either
plunge forward on his face or he’d have to shift his weight back to his
legs before he left the mark. You’re using that position because it’s
the position that will get you into play quickest. But your weight
must always be on your feet. Never use your fingers to more than steady
yourself. Myself, I like to put only one hand to the ground. I let my
left hand point back. It seems to me that it helps me start. But that’s
not important. Use both hands if it seems better for you. Only, and I’m
repeating this purposely, don’t get anchored. And when I say put the
weight on the feet, I don’t mean, of course, that you’re to distribute
the weight evenly. The front foot carries most of the weight. It sets
flat on the ground. The rear foot holds the ground only with the ball
and the toes. But you know that, even if you don’t know that you know
it!”
“Now let’s take the position on defense. The other side has the ball.
Show me now. Not bad, the most of you. Several of you are too high.
Remember this, fellows. Up and forward is the direction, not just
forward. You must come from below and push upward first. Then forward.
Up and forward! Remember that. Ever see a clay pigeon released from a
trap? Well, that’s the way you fellows ought to charge. Just as though
some one had released a spring and sent you straight and hard into the
air. Straddle well, keep your head up, hold your arms wide and your
hands open and then _snap_! Don’t go at it like a crane lifting a block
of stone, slow and steady. Don’t try any tank warfare. Speed, fellows!
Get the jump every time! Drive into him from below and push him up and
back, and do it before he can throw his weight to meet you. And when
you charge know what you’re going to do, where you’re going to apply
your power. Be ready with your hands. They’ll get there before your
body. And then don’t stride forward. Use the short, quick crawling
steps you’ve been taught. Then you’ll get the power from low down.
_But_ if you don’t keep your back straight that power, originating in
your legs, won’t reach your arms. There’ll be a break in the line of
transmission. Now, then, let’s try it. Set wide and get steady. Elbows
out, hands ready. Go! Not bad. You fellow with the long legs, you make
your steps too long. Duck-walk it. This way. Waddle--waddle--waddle!
See? Try it again. Better. All right for that. One more thing, though.
Don’t neglect to hog every inch the officials will let you get away
with. Your hand, the left if you use it to balance with, the right
if you use but one, will be in advance of every portion of your body
except your head. Find out how far forward you can set your hand
without bringing your head beyond your scrimmage line and always put
it there. The difference of even six inches counts. Now we’ll see how
much you remember. Let’s have two lines here. I’ll snap the ball. This
side’s attacking. Now remember that position first. All right. Get
down to it. Here we go!”
Afterwards, during the thirty minutes’ scrimmage with the scrubs, Myers
dogged the first team every moment. “Keep your back straight, right
guard! Lock it! Watch your feet, right tackle! That’s not the way I
showed you, not by a long sight! You played too high, left guard! You
let your man under you! Charge from below! Great jumpin’ Judas! Use
your hands, center! That man ought never to have got through!” And so
it went, with Coach Cade making life merry for the backs, Captain Gus
doing a little criticizing on his own hook and the quarter imploring
the gray empyrean for just one man who could keep his signals straight!
Jim played a long session that Wednesday afternoon, and he finished
with the suspicion that football practice, as the season neared its
climax, was going to be something quite different from anything he had
imagined. But he was going to like it. He knew that!
That evening coaches and players met again in Mr. Cade’s quarters and
a long session developed. Jim was not among the eight or nine players
invited, and he spent most of the evening going over the affairs of the
Maine-and-Vermont Society, which, with a present membership of nearly
forty, was in flourishing condition. Last of all, he wrote politely
imperative reminders to delinquent members on Clem’s small typewriter.
Jim was not an accomplished typist and he spent a good deal more time
than he would have consumed had he written the notes by hand. But
there is no denying that the typed results possessed a certain air of
authority that Jim’s sprawling writing would have failed to attain,
and this in spite of many erasures and several misspelled words. Clem
came back while Jim was still struggling with the envelopes and offered
advice of no value and laughed immoderately at the way Jim’s tongue
stuck out when he was hunting for what he called the “pedals.” Jim
finally ended his task and assembled the half-dozen missives atop his
chiffonier for delivery on the morrow, looking not a little triumphant.
“Aren’t you going to put stamps on them?” asked Clem from the depths of
his arm-chair.
“Stamps cost money,” replied Jim, shaking his head. “I’m my own
postman.”
“That’s a swell society! Doesn’t allow the secretary money for postage!”
“Yes, it does, but the secretary has good legs,” countered Jim. “It’s
no trouble to dump these things in the letter boxes in the halls as I
go by. You see, Clem, I was brought up economical!”
“That so?” Clem yawned and began to unlace a shoe. “Maybe they don’t
have stamps in Maine. I suppose when you write a letter at home, Jim,
you put your snowshoes on and hike across country with it, eh? Say,
talking of societies, how would you like to join Janus?”
“Me?” said Jim. “That the one you belong to? What’s it cost?”
“Not much. Anyway, a fellow doesn’t generally ask the cost of joining,
old son; he looks grateful and kisses his benefactor’s hand. Janus,
Jim, is--well, it’s Janus. ’Nough said. If you belong to Janus you’re
made for life.”
“Huh,” said Jim, “that’s what you hear about all of ’em. Guess it’s too
high for my pocket-book, Clem. Much obliged, though.”
“Don’t be a goof! This, old son, is one of life’s fine moments. Why,
dog my cats, you’re only the third senior that’s ever been proposed.
Either you make it in your junior year or you don’t make it at all.”
“Mean that I’ve been proposed? Who did it? You?”
“Exactly. And I don’t think there’s any doubt about you getting
through. Hang it, show a little enthusiasm, you cold-blooded fish!
Don’t you understand you’re being honored? Say ‘Hooray!’”
“Yeah, but, honest, Clem, I don’t believe I could afford it. I’m sort
of hard-up right now, and I guess likely I’ll be that way for some
time.”
“Well, but I thought-- It’s none of my business, Jim, but isn’t your
father pretty comfortable?”
Jim shook his head. “No, he isn’t, Clem. Not lately. I guess you don’t
know what a hard time country folks have nowadays, farmers especially.
They can’t get money for what they raise like they could a few years
ago. Up our way most farmers raise potatoes for their main crop, but
they’re a good ways from the market and lots of times it don’t pay ’em
to ship ’em. Right on our place I’ve seen more than two hundred bushels
raised on a little piece of ground and piled in the cellar, and they’d
be there, most of ’em, in the Spring. After you’d paid for bags and
carting and freight to Boston and commission to the produce man you’d
be out of pocket. Same way with hogs and most everything else now.
There’s money in lumber, but it’s the fellows in the cities gets it.
When folks haven’t got money to spend, they don’t spend it, and dad’s
business ain’t very good any more. The only way I could come back here
this year was by earning some money last summer. That’s why I went to
that sporting camp. You see, I could have gone to college this Fall if
I’d been willing to. I’d have had a couple of conditions, though, and
I thought it would be better to come here another year. Besides, I--I
got to liking Alton pretty well, and when you wrote you were willing
to let me come in with you I just made up my mind I’d put in another
year here. But I couldn’t very well ask dad to pay for all of it. I
made enough at the camp to pay my tuition, and dad he allows me ten
dollars a month for extras and spending money. Now I’m in debt to you
five dollars, Clem, and I’ve got to go sort of careful or I won’t have
enough money to get home Christmas time.”
“That’s kind of tough,” mused Clem. “Funny, but I had an idea that your
folks were pretty well fixed. Anyhow, don’t you worry about getting
home, old son. There’s still money in the strong-box!”
“I’d borrow if I found I had to, I guess,” said Jim, “but I guess I
won’t have to. Giving that money to Webb--the fellow who was up here
the other day, you know,--sort of put me short, but now he’s gone I
guess I won’t--”
“Gosh! That reminds me, Jim! I’d nearly forgotten it. Say, I don’t
believe he has gone, that guy. This afternoon I’ll swear I saw him on
West street. Or if it wasn’t him it was his double. I didn’t have a
very good look at him, for he was going into that cigar store next to
the express office, but it sure looked like him, clothes and all!”
Jim looked worried. “Maybe it was just some fellow who looked like
Webb,” he said. But his tone lacked conviction. “He promised me he’d
go to Norwalk the next morning, and I’d be right sorry to find he
hadn’t. Besides--” Jim didn’t finish the sentence.
“Well, you should worry,” said Clem cheerfully. “If he comes around
here again just you hand him over to me, old son. I’ve got a system
with pan-handlers and book agents and their ilk. How’s that for a word?
‘Ilk’! I’ll say that’s cute!”
But Clem couldn’t get Jim to smile. “It wouldn’t do him any good to
come to me again,” he said soberly. “I haven’t got any more money. I do
wish, though, he’d gone like he said he would. That is, if he ain’t.”
“Probably he has,” replied Clem encouragingly. “I dare say I was just
fooled by a resemblance, Jim. After all, there’s quite a bunch of
fellows of his style around town since they started the new factory
up.” Secretly, though, Clem was convinced that he had not been
mistaken, and two days later that conviction was strengthened.
Presently, returning to the original subject of discourse, he said:
“About coming into Janus, Jim. Suppose you just let it rest for a
while. There’s no great rush in the matter, anyway. I’ll let your name
go over the next meeting. That will give you time to think it over. The
expense isn’t much anyway. I’d tell you exactly, only it’s against the
rules to give out information of any sort. You take a couple of weeks
and think it over. I want you to come in if you can possibly do it, old
son, so don’t say no now.”
So Jim didn’t say no. He merely shook his head and, so to speak, laid
the question on the table. After that, while Clem, propped against
his pillow, read in bed, Jim took his football from the closet shelf,
snuggled it lovingly in his lap and started all over again on the rules
book. When Clem’s book dropped from his hand and he turned over and
closed his eyes, his room-mate was still fondling the ball and frowning
over the apparent intricacies of the following: “Players of the side
which did not put the ball in play may use (1) their hands and arms to
push opponents out of the way in order to get at the ball and (2) their
bodies or their arms close to the body to obstruct opponents who are
going down the field from getting at a player of their own side who is
endeavoring to get at the ball.”
Jim rubbed a hand across his eyes and read it again. There were, he
thought, too many “get ats.” Maybe, though, he was too sleepy to--yes,
to “get at” the sense. He’d try it again to-morrow.