Intentional grounding is a penalty in football in which the quarterback throws the ball away to avoid being hit by a defensive player. In the NFL, the penalty for intentional grounding is generally a 10-yard loss and a loss of down, but it can change depending on where the quarterback is positioned when he throws the ball.

If the quarterback is more than 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage when he commits an intentional grounding penalty, the ball is placed at the yard line from which he threw the ball. This still results in a loss of down. If the quarterback is in his own end zone when he commits an intentional grounding penalty, the result is a safety, which awards two points to the defensive team. The offensive team then must kick the ball back to the defensive team.

A quarterback can avoid an intentional grounding penalty in a number of ways. If there is an eligible receiver in the area where the ball is thrown, there is no intentional grounding. An eligible receiver must typically be a wide receiver, running back or tight end, and he must have at least a reasonable chance to catch the pass in order to negate the penalty.

The quarterback is also allowed to throw the ball away, depending on where he is on the field. There is an imaginary area that extends between the offensive tackles -- the two outermost members of the offensive line, excluding the tight end -- and backward infinitely from the line of scrimmage in which intentional grounding is not allowed. This area is commonly referred to as the "pocket." If the quarterback scrambles laterally beyond the left or right tackle, or outside of the pocket, he can then throw the ball away without being penalized for intentional grounding. The throw must at least reach the line of scrimmage, regardless of whether an eligible receiver is nearby.

The logic behind the penalty applied to intentional grounding is this: What would have happened if the quarterback had not thrown the ball? Most penalties result in the negation of the play, meaning that if a penalty happens on first down, the team loses yards but the down remains first.

Intentional grounding, though, is done to avoid a sack, and if a sack had occurred, the team would have lost both the yards and the down. A sack on third down leads to fourth. Hence the penalty for intentional grounding includes a loss of down. Also, if a sack had occurred in the end zone, the result would be a safety. Such is the penalty for intentional grounding in the end zone.