At one time -- I'm sure that time ended before 1955, probably before 1950 -- first touching by K inside R's 20 (or maybe just inside their 10) was penalizable as a touchback. They didn't want team K to be able to prevent a touchback by killing a ball that was moving toward the end zone.
And for a time such illegal touching was a foul that could cancel an opposing penalty. So was an incomplete forward pass!
Robert
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