Intentional Grounding rules

“It is a foul for intentional grounding if a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage because of pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass that is not in the direction **and vicinity** of an originally eligible offensive receiver. The pass does not have to be incomplete for intentional grounding to apply.”

This is now two times in two weeks where NFL officials have said that simply throwing the ball over the head of an eligible receiver is enough to stave off grounding, which is explicitly **not** the rule. I have no idea why this is happening and it feels like there should be a much bigger stink about it.

Bonus note: Ron Torbert (the ref in the Eagles-Jags game) is also the referee who completely botched an intentional grounding in the Cowboys-Ravens game in 2024 because he said that it couldn’t be grounding because the pass was caught by an *ineligible* receiver. It also nullified a would be safety.