PENALTIES

There are many rules and penalties that are enforced during a football game. Most football penalties result in a loss or gain of yardage depending on whether the penalty is against the offense or the defense. The severity of the penalty determines the number of yards. Most penalties are 5 or 10 yards, but some personal foul penalties result in 15 yards. Also, pass interference can result in a penalty that matches the length of the intended pass. The team that did not commit the penalty has the right to decline the penalty.

Here are some of the more common football penalties:

False Start: When a football player on the offense moves just prior to the snap. This is a five yard penalty. Understand that one back on the offense can legally be “in motion” at the time of the snap.

Offside: If a player from the offense or defense is on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage at the time of the snap. A defensive player can cross the line of scrimmage as long as they get back before the snap, but if they touch an offensive player they can be called for encroachment.

Encroachment: A foul in which a defender makes contact with a member of the offense before the snap. Encroachment results in a five-yard penalty on the offending team.

Holding: When a player grabs a football player without the ball with the hands or hooks him or tackles him.

Pass Interference: When a defender contacts a pass receiver after the ball is in the air to prevent him from catching the ball. This is up to the referee to determine. If the contact is before the ball is in the air it will be called defensive holding. Note that pass interference can also be called on the offense if the defender has position and is trying to catch the ball.

Facemask: To protect the football players, it is illegal to grab another player’s facemask.

Roughing the passer or kicker: To protect kickers and quarterbacks, who are very vulnerable when they are passing or kicking the ball, players are not allowed to run into them after the ball has been thrown or kicked.

Intentional Grounding: When the passer throws a pass nowhere near an eligible receiver strictly to avoid being sacked.

Ineligible Receiver Downfield: When one of the offensive players that is not an eligible receiver is more than 5 yards downfield from the line of scrimmage during a forward pass.