European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes tuesday september 12, 1978 comb on  the plunge Tom Wicker Canadian journalists also having problems 1976 los Angeles times Syndicate the american press has been hav ing a bad season in court but if it s any Comfort journalists have even worse Trou Bles in Canada a nation in which As i Learned during a recent visit the civil lib erties seem to be viewed with somewhat less sensitivity than they Are below the Border. In the United states in recent months the supreme court has made Clear both in the Stanford daily Case and in one involving press Access to a California county jail the court s emerging View that reporters have no special rights in gathering the news. And a new Jersey judge has fined the new York times and sent one of its re porters to jail for claiming that under the first amendment and new Jersey statute the reporter is not required to turn Over his notes to the defense in a criminal trial. In Canada the Trudeau government has brought the first prosecution in that coun try s history of a journalist and a newspaper under the Canadian official secrets act. Peter Worthington a reporter for the Toronto Sun and Douglas Creighton the Sun s publisher were charged with breaching the act after the Sun carried an article by Worthington last March 7 in which he quoted a top secret govern ment document citing numerous specific instances of soviet espionage against can Ada. Both men could be sentenced to 14 years in prison but that s not necessarily the worst of it. Under the official secrets act the trial could be held entirely in secret and parts of a preliminary hearing were and As is often the Case with top secret George will autumnal mayhem is under Way the desecration of autumn by foot Ball has begun. By Christmas More than 1.5 million players will have been injured seriously enough to miss practices or games. And coaches and fans will have said More than 1.5 million times that injuries Are part of the  How big that part is has been demonstrated by sports illustrated s John Underwood in a three part series on football violence. In 1905, president Theodore Roosevelt who enjoyed War and other forms of strenuous life demanded civilizing rules changes for football which had killed 18 players that year. In 1973, an Indiana High school team suffered four broken backs and four broken legs. Oklahoma state s physician was called onto the Field 13 times in one game. The Detroit Lions had 21 knee operations. The nil argues that Only one percent of injuries result from acts against the rules. Underwood responds that if 99 percent of injuries like the broken neck that Para lazed a Boston patriots receiver last month result from play within the rules the rules should be changed. Helmets have virtually eliminated Skull fractures but blows by helmets cause about 30 percent of the worst injuries spinal damage ruptured spleens bruised kidneys. Underwood believes helmets should be padded and that rules should prohibit a player from using his helmet to make the first Contact in a Block or tackle. Many injuries Are the result of playing styles taught by coaches techniques like the chop Block where a player blocks Down onto an opponent s Knees Spear ing where a player plunges his helmet into an opponent and Rake blocking where a Blocker rakes his face mask into an opponent s Chin. Although clubbing with forearms has been prohibited in College football since 1949, coach Fred Akers of Texas cringes when he sees rival teams with their arms taped to the  Ara Parseghian former notre Dame coach favors Banning All below the Waist blocks away from the line of scrimmage. John Madden coach of the Oakland raid ers suggests something like a grab Rule requiring defenders to use Only hands and arms against a quarterback who is Vulner Able because he is in the act of passing. And there almost certainly should be a Rule against hitting backs or receivers like the Boston patriots receiver who do not have the Ball and who often Are hit when in a vulnerable position and from a Blind Side. But there Are limits to what rules changes even 30-Yard penalties for unnecessary roughness can do for a game that is fundamentally unsafe. Football is More than a Contact  As a coach has said dancing is a Contact sport football is a collision sport. Football is physics Force equals mass x acceleration. It is especially dangerous for Young sters whose neck Muscles have not devel oped but it is always dangerous to All spines and Knees. They Are not built for the kinds of collisions inevitable in football collisions that Are becoming worse As the weight differential Between linemen an backs increases. Quarterbacks suffer one seventh of All serious injuries. On the last weekend of this year s exhibition games four nil quarterbacks were injured. Last season 20 quarterbacks on the 28 nil teams were in capacitated. On the first saturday of last season half the big eight teams lost their first string quarterbacks. By mid season eight Southwest conference first string quarterbacks were out and Texas was us ing its fourth quarterback. Georgia lost it fourth and fifth in the final game. Such in juries Are not always unintentional Tak ing out quarterbacks is a tactic. As Underwood says the insecurity of coaches the Short careers of players who Are competing for High stakes and the in Herent violence not to say frenzy of the game produces a War  and often there is chemical warfare As players especially defensive linemen use amphetamines in order to achieve in the decorous words of Frank Tarkenton Minnesota Vikings quarterback a final plateau of endurance and competitive  most coaches want gang tackling in which most tackles Are As Underwood says vicious exclamation  sportscasters burble Praise of those who play with com plete abandon in an atmosphere of Rule bending. Football involves Large squads of play ers who Are increasingly specialized according to an elaborate division of labor special teams and linemen who play Only on third and Short  this is Why football is primarily a coaches game. If the mayhem continues to increase some coaches May find themselves defendant sin lawsuits and the web of liability May ensnare schools and officials. It is Only a matter of time before a National television audience sees a player killed As part of the  c the Washington Post documents in any country the one in ques Tion May not even have been All that secret or important. One of the instances cited by Worthing ton for example was the expulsion of a so Viet journalist from Canada after he had allegedly persuaded a Canadian journalist to act on behalf of soviet  but the government s refusal to permit the so Viet reporter to return to Canada after a Home leave in Moscow was fully reported in the Canadian press in 1974 among oth ers by Peter Worthington himself on Jan 22,1974, in the Toronto Sun. Another item Worthington reported from the top secret document was that since 1970, five Canadian corporation shave become partners of the soviets in Selling and servicing soviet  but on nov. 28, 1977, the Regina Leader Post in an editorial based on a report in the new York times commented on five soviet Canadian joint equity  the original times report was based on information made Public by the Cia information that still was marked top secret in Canada in March 1978. An opposition member of the Canadian parliament told me moreover that fifty Odd copies of the document had been distributed to government offices in Ottawa a sure prescription for a leak and hardly the Way to handle a really top secret paper. Another opposition m.p., Tom Cossitt of Leeds quoted liberally from the same document on the floor of parliament Well before Worthington quoted it in print. And five weeks before his March 7 article a program called operation code Blue on Canadian television broadcast much of the information in the same document to a National audience. The Federal minister of Justice Ronald Basford has announced that it would not be proper to prosecute Cossitt for his state ments in the House of commons. As for the ctr program neither Basford nor anyone else has said Why no prosecution has resulted or Why the government has not even requested a tape or a transcript of it. A widely held theory is that the decision not to prosecute Cossitt was unpopular with Security Hawks in the Trudeau cab inet and with the Royal Canadian mounted police and that the Worthington Creighton prosecution was undertaken As a sort of Compromise on the Issue. Ironically Cossitt and Worthington both Are known As strongly anti communist. Worthington received the secret paper in the mail held it for six months then published it he told other reporters Only after Trudeau made statements suggest ing at least to Worthington that the prime minister did not take the threat of soviet espionage very seriously. Worthington said he believed it was More important for the Canadian people to have the information in the document than for him to worry about technical violations of the official secrets act an argument not unfamiliar to journalists in the United states. But Basford sounding rather like chief Justice Burger contends that the press is not in a somewhat special position in our  journalists he insists Are in no different a position than  that seems obviously to be the Case in Canada. The Canadian official secrets act for example prohibits not just the Possession of secret documents but the communication of any part of such document. So conceivably Peter Worthington or any reporter could be tried in secret and sentenced to 14 years imprison for communicating material that already had been widely communicated in other publications on National television and in the House of commons. C new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on mis Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government