[Football] Having penalties "from the spot of the foul" makes no sense to me

[Dennis S]

I don't know if "arbitrary" is the right word, but as I see it, the spot of the foul shouldn't affect the penalty.

[OWC Jamie]

but that is the precise moment when the foul changed the course of an unfouled history.

Where would you have the play resume or the foul be spotted your non-favorite team's locker room ?

[bik]

It would help if you knew more about a specific penalty that made you think of this.

By their nature, some penalties nullify a play, therefore the penalty is assessed from the previous line of scrimmage. For example, false start, illegal formation, encroachment, and holding penalties would all nullify a play.

Other penalties occur during plays that don't need to be nullified. A block in the back during a kick return is an example of a from-the-spot foul. For example, if there is a 60-yard kick return, and a foul occurs 50 yards into the return, it wouldn't be fair to wipe out the whole return. In that case, the penalty is assessed from where the foul happened.

One "spot" penalty in the NFL that many people hate is Pass Interference, where a long throw can turn into a really long penalty. Interfering with a receiver 40 yards down the field would mean a 40 yard penalty. Because you can't know for sure that the receiver would have caught the ball, many people (myself included) wish it would be more like a 15-yard maximum penalty.

[NewtonMP2100]

......neither does....Smilla's sense of snow.......

[August West]

If an offensive player has advanced the ball 60 yards from the line of scrimmage and a penalty will result in a 15 yard advance from the line of scrimmage, what happens to the game?

[bik]

August West wrote:
If an offensive player has advanced the ball 60 yards from the line of scrimmage and a penalty will result in a 15 yard advance from the line of scrimmage, what happens to the game?

The offensive team will decline the penalty and take the yards from the play rather than the penalty.