What is a 'facemask penalty'?

What is a 'facemask penalty'?

Darrin Chiaverini (Football Coach and Professional Athlete) gives expert video advice on: What is a 'delay of game'?; What is 'offsides'?; What is 'encroachment'? and more...

There's two different kinds of facemask penalties. There's a fifteen yard penalty when they consider that the person making the tackle intentionally grabbed the facemask and held onto it. There's also a facemask penalty that's a five yard penalty which is just grabbing the facemask but letting go of it right away. So there's two different kinds of penalties. One is a five yard penalty, no first down. The fifteen yard one is a personal foul one, that's an automatic first down.