Grounding in football refers to a penalty called intentional grounding. It is a violation of the rules where a passer throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion. This typically happens when a quarterback is about to be sacked and passes the ball toward an area of the field with no eligible receiver. Without this rule, the quarterback could almost always avoid a sack by intentionally throwing an incomplete pass, which would stop the clock and return the ball to the line of scrimmage, avoiding any loss of yardage. Instead, the penalty of intentional grounding effectively continues play as if the defense had succeeded in sacking the quarterback.
The basics of intentional grounding are as follows:
- Its intentional grounding if a QB throws the ball away to avoid a sack or to save time.
- The QB hasn't gotten outside the pocket.
- The QB doesn't throw the ball to a receiver who has a realistic chance of catching it.
- The ball doesn't get to or past the line of scrimmage.
Intentional grounding is a foul and results in a loss of down and a 10-yard penalty.
