 Penalties may occur before a play starts (such as offsides), during the play (such as holding), or in a dead-ball situation (such as unsportsmanlike conduct).Penalties never result in a score for the offence (a penalty by the defence committed in their end zone is not ruled a touchdown); on rare occasions, penalties against the offence in their own end zone may result in a safety being scored by the defence.If the penalty yardage, once assessed would move the ball into an end zone (or further than half the distance between the end zone and the spot the penalty is assessed from), a penalty of half-the-distance is assessed instead.