Why isn’t spiking the ball in order to stop the clock intentional grounding? The QB is between the tight ends and obviously not passing the ball.
I believe that there is a special exception written into the rule for it. Were it not for that, you’re right - it would be intentional grounding.
Spiking the ball to stop the clock has been allowed in the NFL since the mid 1980s and college football adopted the rule a little later. In fact, in college football, the QB doesn’t even get charged with a pass attempt on such a play.
QBs are also allowed to throw the ball away if they are outside the area defined by the tackles on each side and the pass goes past the line of scrimmage.
It’s intentional grounding if the QB throws a hopeless pass TO AVOID A SACK. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with grounding the ball to stop the clock. In fact, it’s okay to ground the ball even if the play’s been going on for several seconds and it looks like the pocket’s about to collapse; it’s not a penalty until he’s actually in danger.
Incidentally, intentionally fumbling the ball is also intentional grounding (and usually easy to spot).
Actually, I’m not sure about this. I think it was the case until the NFL changed the rules a few years ago, trying to make things more clear-cut.
I believe that avoidance of a sack has very little to do with it now: with the specific exception of an immediate spike to stop the clock, if the QB is inside the “tackle box” and deliberately throws an incomplete pass, it’s Intentional Grounding. If he’s outside the tackle box, and he manages the throw the ball past the line of scrimmage, it’s not IG even if it’s done solely to avoid a sack.
The NFL website has a Q&A page with Jerry Seeman, the director of officiating. On this page Seeman says, more or less, that the QB spiking the ball to stop the clock is a special case specifically made legal by rule - otherwise, it would be IG.
Interestingly, only a “T-formation quarterback” may legally spike the ball in this manner. For example, a field goal holder would be called for IG if he spiked the ball after recovering a bad snap - see this Seeman column. This might have been an issue a few Monday Nights ago in Green Bay had Vikings holder Mitch Berger not panicked when he bobbled the snap on a potentially game-winning FG attempt with 8 seconds left. It was not fourth down, but the Vikes had no time-outs left; if they’d been able to stop the clock quickly, they could have tried the FG again. However, in light of this rule, Berger could not have simply spiked the ball into the ground. This would have been IG. That, in itself, seems like an acceptable trade-off. However, I believe that a 10-second runoff would have been enforced, as well (for a penalty that stops the clock inside of 2 minutes w/ no timeouts left), which would have ended regulation.
As it was, Berger (as he admitted after the game) wasn’t thinking clearly, and he scrambled around, eventually throwing an interception with no time left. The Vikes lost in OT.
Quarterbacks have always thrown the ball away, to a spot where no one could possibly catch it, for various reasons. Sometimes, a quarterback throws the ball out of the end zone when he realizes there’s no receiver available- that’s not intentional grounding.
When I was a kid, quarterbacks in the 2-minute drill would throw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock- perfectly legal. The NFL finally changed the rule so that the QB could spike the ball, rather than throwing it out of bounds (same result, but saves officials the time and trouble of retrieving the ball).
It’s only a penalty if the quarterback’s clear intent was to avoid a sack and loss of yardage.
Interestingly, in the PAST, refs only seemed to call grounding when the attempted pass was a feeble effort. MOST of the time, a veteran quarterback in danger of a sack could heave the ball way downfield (preferably out of bounds) where no one could possibly catch (or intercept) it, and the refs would look the other way- even though that DEEP downfield pass was just as obviously an attempt to avoid a sack.
Lately, though, refs have been tougher, and HAVE called intentional grounding on such deep passes.