You've Been a Bad Man

Let's talk penalties. I know a little about holding. While most of us like to be held, apparantly football players don't -- at least not during the game. It is especially bad to grab someone's face mask. Fans get really, really indignant about this one. When a penalty is incurred a yellow towel is thrown on the field -- I think it's called a flag. I'm not exactly sure what happens when a team incurrs a penalty. I think they can be sent back some number of yards. Perhaps there is also something like a free-throw (like in basketball). I know a little about basketball because I had a crush on Danny Ainge when I was like 12. I cried when he was traded. He was sooo cute.

Comments

[hadas]

What I've been wondering is whether there are set penalties for specific violations or whether they're always at the ref's discretion. For example, if a face mask is grabbed, is that always going to be a 15yd penalty, or does it depend on the ferocity of the grabbing?

Also, upon closer inspection, it looks like there are weights on the towels to make them travel farther onto the field rather than fluttering gracefully through the air. What are these towels made of? Do you think they're knit, like the orange gloves?

[hadas]

During the first Thanksgiving game, I caught the referee saying that "the penalties are offset". This happened when both teams incurred penalties during the same play, so neither team was penalized. So it seems that in football, two wrongs do make a right.