Another Reflection

In American Football and Canadian Football, a penalty is a punishment called against a team for a violation of the rules, called a foul. The foul, if committed by the defense, will advance the ball 5,10, or 15 yards towards the offending team's end zone. The offense may also gain a 1st down, or when close to the goal line, move the ball half the distance towards. If the offense commits the foul, the penalty might be a loss of a down or a loss of yards, or scoring an automatic safety.

When the foul is committed any time the ball is in play during any down, one or more officials will throw a bright yellow flag towards where it was committed. The play will not stop until the ball is dead (not in play anymore) under normal conditions if there were no penalties. Then the officials will assess if the fouls were committed, which ones, and who was involved. But the final decision is the referee's decision.

He will then normally go to the offended team's captain to ask if they want to accept, or decline the penalty and take the result of the play.

He will then use visual hand signals to specifically describe the foul in detail and the resulting penalty received.