I had a discussion with my 10-year-old son recently. He asked me something about the quarterback throwing the ball into the ground on purpose. I explained what I knew of intentional grounding. I explained it to the best of my ability (I am not much of a football fan). But he said, no, they do it all the time and it isn’t a penalty. I thought he simply misunderstood what he was watching, but today he showed me a replay.
In the replay, the quarterback took the snap and immediately threw the ball directly to the ground, right behind the center. It stopped the clock and he was not called for intentional grounding.
When did this tactic start, and why isn’t it intentional grounding?
I can’t wait until baseball season so he asks me questions I can actually answer… :rolleyes:
The official NFL rules on Intentional Grounding states:
“Intentional grounding will be called when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion.”
Since spiking the ball immediately after the snap does not fulfill the requirements for Intentional Grounding (no imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense), there is no penalty, and it is considered an incomplete pass, resulting in a loss of down and stopping the clock.
I’m not sure how long it’s been around, but it’s been a while. I can’t find the exact exception, but in the NFL Rules Digest under Intentional Grounding of a Forward Pass:
I think they may be interpreting the spike as legal because if the QB receives the ball from the snapper and immediately downs it he is technically not under “an imminent loss of yardage” yet and not trying to avoid a sack because the defense hasn’t had time to penetrate yet.
Looks like I was beat to it - that’s what I get for trying to get all my cites all nice and linked up
When I was a kid, quarterbacks who needed to stop the clock during a 4th quarter drive would step back and throw the ball out of bounds. THAT was a deliberate incompletion, too, but refs never called “intentional grounding,” because the intentional grounding penalty had a specific meaning an purpose: to prevent quarterbacks from throwing the ball any old place, just to avoid an imminent sack.
League officials finally changed the rules, and said it’s okay for a quarterback to throw the ball straight into the ground simply because it’s FASTER and easier than dropping back and throwing the ball out of bounds.
And in either case, the quarterback wasn’t trying to avoid being sacked.
And, lest we forget, throwing the ball away to avoid a pass rusher isn’t ALWAYS intentional grounding- only when the quarterback is still in the pocket. If he manages to scramble outside the pocket, he’s allowed to throw the ball away, even if Ray Lewis is on the verge of pasting him.
And, of course, if the quarterback has a powerful arm and manages to throw the ball waaaay out of the end zone, no one will ever call “intentional grounding,” even if that’s exactly what it was.
The other reason that this was done was that there was a wide reciever over there. The offense could semi-plausibly say that the QB was throwing it to the split end; he just happened to put it seven feet over his head. Of course, everyone knew what was really being done.
Football, unlike baseball, does a good job of adjusting the rules to address the way the game is being played.
One fun fact not mentioned: If you try to spike the ball from shotgun, they will call intentional grounding. Spiking the ball is a special exception that can only be done from under center.
Cris Collinsworth learned this the hard way in the 2002 Wildcard round, Giants @ 49ers. During the live telecast he screamed and screamed that the kicker should have just spiked the ball, since it was only 3rd down. Later that week he had to publicly apologize for not knowing the rules, which prohibit spiking the ball unless under center.
