[mcrowder]

Disclaimer - I'm an NCAA guy, and my entire knowledge of FED rules is from here.

However, I think you have reason and rule support (and logic) to support the idea of waiving off the IW in favor of the penalty. The rule says before the end of the kick - and the penalty did happen before the end of the kick, in the sense that when the penalty occurred, the kick was still ongoing. I don't think the fact that you have no official "end of kick" spot of the ball has any bearing.

As to K "having possession", while they may be the team "of offense" at the time of the IW, they certainly didn't have possession of the ball. Also, since you can't assume any action (such as a muff or fumble) after the IW, you can't assume that K would have the ball at the end of the play. In fact, logic would say that it would have been R's ball had the IW not occurred.

the interp I'm reading here seems to force the IW to negate the penalty - surely not the intent of the any of the rules I've read hear.