Penalty (gridiron football)

In some cases, depending on the spot of the foul, the ball is moved half the distance to the goal line rather than the usual number of yards, or the defense scores an automatic safety.

[3] Because football is a high-contact sport requiring a balance between offense and defense, many rules exist that regulate equality, safety, contact, and actions of players on each team.

[4] Thus, an elaborate system of fouls and penalties has been developed to "let the punishment fit the crime" and maintain a balance between following the rules and keeping a good flow of the game.

A foul is a rule infraction (e.g. offensive holding) for which a penalty (e.g. move back 10 yards) is either assessed or declined.

Once the ball is dead, or immediately when a foul is called after a play is over or prior to a snap (since the ball is dead anyway), the referee, the officials who threw the flags and other officials with a view of the play confer on whether the initially alleged infraction is adjudged (after deliberation and consideration of the rule(s) and the infraction) to have actually been committed, what it was, and who committed it.

[10] The result of the play may be more advantageous to the offended team, especially, for example, if time is running out in the half and a 7-yard gain is a better option than a 5-yard penalty.

However, the referee may not have to confer with the team captain because the choice is fairly obvious (such as when the defense commits a foul during a play in which the offense scores a touchdown).

[11] After any final conference, the referee then makes full visual signals describing the foul in detail, consisting of: the foul that was committed, the team that committed it, whether or not the opposing team chooses to decline it, the resulting down or possession, and any other penalties such as disqualification (ejection) of a player from the game or a ten-second runoff from the game clock.

In college football, the NFL and other professional leagues, and in some high school games, the referee also announces the fouls and their penalties over the stadium's public address system using a wireless microphone.

Some officials, especially in high school and lower levels, will refer to teams by their jersey color (e.g. "white", "red", "blue", etc.).

Exceptions (which are extremely rare at higher levels) can apply for egregious conduct known as palpably unfair acts e.g. someone entering the field to interfere with a player running towards the end zone with the ball.

Particular attention in this regard is now taken with respect to blows to the head, due to the now-known long-term hazards concussions pose to players' health.

[15] There is one situation in which intentional fouling is generally tolerated: in the event that a team is on its fourth down and within the four-down territory—outside of field goal range but unlikely to gain meaningful yardage for a punt—the offense may take a five-yard dead ball foul such as delay of game or false start to back the offense up five yards and give the punter more space to land a punt within the red zone.

Since the enforcement of the 10-second runoff, eight regular season NFL games have had a half end automatically due to this rule.

A pre-season game in 2006 between Houston and Kansas City had the first half end automatically due to an intentional grounding foul with less than 10 seconds left.

Because college football did not yet have the 10-second runoff, UNC was penalized 5 yards but was still able to kick the field goal to send the game to overtime, since the foul caused the clock to stop with time remaining.

An interception by LSU's Grant Delpit was overruled when it was determined Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond retrieved a bad snap with his right knee on the ground, ending the play.

The exceptions are offside, encroachment, neutral zone infraction, delay of game, illegal substitution, calling excess timeouts, running into a kicker, and having more than 11 men on the field.

(see contacting the kicker) In high school only, committing repeated fouls that halve the distance to the goal is explicitly defined as an unfair act.