If you settle in to watch NFL football on most Sundays, you’ve surely heard a referee utter the phrase “10-second runoff.”
Sure, we know that the 10-second runoff has something to do with the penalties and clock stoppages, but let’s dive deeper. What is the NFL’s 10-second runoff rule, and how does it work?
The NFL’s 10-Second Runoff Rule, Explained
The NFL’s 10-second runoff rule, in place since 1955, is designed to account for the effects of a stopped game clock.
The 10-second runoff can only be used during the final two minutes of a half or overtime.
The most common use of the 10-second runoff rule involves a penalty. An offense with no timeouts remaining could conceivably commit an intentional penalty to land a “free timeout.” Running 10 seconds off the clock attempts to prevent that sort of strategy.
Game officials will use a 10-second runoff when any of the following penalties occur inside two minutes:
- Offensive foul that prevents the snap (like a false start)
- Intentional grounding
- Illegal forward pass thrown from beyond the line of scrimmage
- Throwing a backward pass out of bounds
- Spiking or throwing the ball in the field of play after the down ends
- Fouls that stop the clock between downs (like unsportsmanlike conduct)
In these situations, the 10-second runoff can only apply to the offense. If the offense still has a timeout remaining, it can use that TO to stop the clock from draining 10 seconds.
Meanwhile, the defense can accept the penalty yardage while declining the 10-second runoff. However, a defense can’t do the reverse (accepting the runoff while declining the yardage penalty).
Penalties usually cause a 10-second runoff, but a few other scenarios can lead to the clock rule being deployed.
If an offensive player is injured on the field inside the two-minute warning with a running clock, and the offense has no timeouts remaining, the 10-second runoff will be used. Concurrent injuries to the offense and defense on the same play do not result in a 10-second runoff.
Finally, referees also utilize the 10-second runoff after replay reviews. If an on-field call is reversed and the new resulting play would not have stopped the clock, a 10-second runoff is enforced to account for that lost game time.