A little off topic, but... After reading the rule about a forward pass, can someone tell me why spiking the ball isn't intentional grounding?
Boy that's a good one. I had never thought about it in those terms but I'll take a shot until someone who knows helps us out on this one..... My guess is that the intentional grounding rule has a stipulation about grounding it to avoid a sack, in which case, would not apply when the intention is to stop the clock and not because of pressure and possible loss of yardage.
It really wouldn't matter if it were. Under the current rule, intential grounding places the ball at the spot of the foul and a loss of down. Spiking the ball places the ball at the original line of scrimage and a loss of down (because the down happened.) The only difference would be the loss of the 1 yard from the QB standing behind the center. If the intentional grounding rule cost an additional 10 yards from the spot of the foul and a loss of down like it used to be, there would be some real meat in the penalty. Because they didn't want to take 10 yards from the offense in this situation, they exempted spiking the ball from the intentional grounding rule. GEAUX TIGERS
