Intentional grounding

In gridiron football, intentional grounding is a violation of the rules where "a passer...throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion."[1] This typically happens when a quarterback about to be sacked passes the ball toward an area of the field with no eligible receiver. Were it not for this rule, the quarterback could easily turn the sack into an incomplete pass which, by rule, would advance the ball back to the line of scrimmage.

Elements

A ball carrier, in any location, commits intentional grounding when throwing a pass that does not reach the line of scrimmage; for instance, throwing the football down near himself.

However, the quarterback is allowed to spike the ball immediately after receiving it from the center. At the cost of a down, this is a way to stop the clock without using a time out. This is not an intentional grounding violation.

Intentional grounding is also called if all of the following components are present:

  • Imminent pressure. The passer must face "imminent loss of yardage."[1] There is no violation when the passer is not about to be tackled but the receiver simply fails to run the route the quarterback expects.
  • Location. The quarterback must be inside the "tackle box," the area between the two offensive tackles on the line. If the quarterback scrambles to either side and is closer to the sideline than that side's tackle lined up, there is no penalty, unless the pass fails to go beyond the line of scrimmage. (The NFL added this element of the rule in 1993 in order to protect quarterbacks,[2] but high school football did not.)
  • Target of the pass. The ball must be passed where there is no eligible receiver, such as well out of bounds. If a receiver is nearby but fails to catch the ball, or if a defender deflects the pass, there is no penalty.

After a flag is thrown, the officials may confer to decide whether all these components were present, and may "pick up the flag" upon finding there was no intentional grounding.

Penalty

The penalty for intentional grounding has several components so that the offense gains no benefit from the violation:[3]

  • The offense is backed up 10 yards from the line of scrimmage or to the spot of the pass, whichever is most disadvantageous.
  • The offense loses the down rather than replaying it – for most other penalties the offense is permitted to replay the down if the defense accepts the penalty.
  • If the quarterback threw the pass from his team's own end zone, inside or out of the tackle box, the penalty results in a safety being scored by the defense.[4]
  • The penalty of intentional grounding is not an effective means of clock management, since it is among the offensive penalties which may result in a ten-second runoff on the game clock if committed near the end of either half.

Pro Bowl

In the NFL Pro Bowl, intentional grounding is legal in order to make the game safer.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Official Rules of the NFL, Rule 8-3-1.
  2. ↑ Don Pierson (1993-07-23). "More Protection Awaits Qb Assets". Chicago Tribune.
  3. ↑ Beacom, Mike. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Football.
  4. ↑ Theismann, Joe; Tarcy, Brian. The complete idiot's guide to football.
  5. ↑ Jackson, Scoop (January 26, 2012). "The Pro Bowl's search for meaning". ESPN.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
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