Scorecard

PROPOSITION FROM THE PROS

The commendable decision of Pete Rozelle, National Football League commissioner, to end premature signing of college football players by NFL teams was a fine stroke of public relations. It is an unconditional declaration that will become part of the NFL constitution and nullify any contract signed before the end of the college season, or even before bowl games. And it leaves Rozelle's American Football League counterpart, Joe Foss, standing out in the rain of denunciation that has fallen since the practice was exposed. Foss put up a countershower of words that are meaningless, refusing to commit the AFL until there is a tripartite meeting of AFL, NFL and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He knows that Rozelle will not consent to such a meeting.

Obviously, if Foss continues to ignore independently the cease-and-desist plea of the NCAA, the NFL could lose some of next year's draft choices to the junior league. Rozelle knew that as well as anyone and, for the good of the game, proved himself willing to take the chance.

As for Foss, he has used words before. It is only four years since he gave his word to the NCAA that he would void such untimely contracts. He has yet to void No. 1.

Rozelle, meanwhile, is oddly criticized by the NFL Players Association, which seeks to unseat him. With the woozy explanation that Rozelle has not represented the players "as we feel we should be represented," Bernie Parrish, vice-president of the association and a defensive back for the Cleveland Browns, called for Rozelle's replacement by Paul Brown, former coach of the Browns.

These are the same players who, to enrich their pension fund (to which they contribute nothing), recently proposed that the league championship be decided on the basis of two games out of three—a scheme that, what with the excessive proliferation of bowl games, both professional and amateur, could easily set back the advance of professional football by several years. The game should keep its fans hungry, never fully satiated.

It is one game that should not be given back to the boys.

THE ELUSIVE BUCK
For those who failed to get their deer this past season there may be consolation in statistics released by the North Carolina Wildlife Commission. When only bucks were legal targets, 26.38 hunter-days were taken to kill each animal. Even when does also were legal, the average time per deer harvested was 8.24 hunter-days.

COLO SCIENTIFIC PROOF

Many a curler has flipped his tam-o'-shanter at the suggestion that no real good is accomplished by having players furiously sweep the ice in front of the 44-pound stone as it glides toward its mark. Sheer vain display, some uninitiates have held, while others have urged that sweeping was invented as a device to add a spurious air of excitement to what is essentially a dull game.