FOOTBALL 101 - Important Penalties

Offsides: This is a good term to know because there are constantly offsides penalties. This is simply when someone jumps the gun before the QB says hike. (Offsides gives the other team 5 free yards)

Pass Interference: Play the ball and not the man. If you and a receiver are both jumping for the ball and you hit him en route, that is ok. But you cannot jump at the receiver without ever looking for or attempting to get the ball. This is a huge penalty because if the QB throws the ball all the way down the field and the receiver misses it because he was interfered with, the play counts as if he caught it. Which means the offense gets to move all the way up to where he so-called caught the ball and they get a first down. So when Terrel Owens misses a big catch and freaks out at the referees looking for penalty call, that's because they want it to count as if they caught it and they want all those yards (esp if it was a big throw all the way down the field).

Class Dismissed!