;) Must be a coach or a dad. You know how hard they study the rules.

R gave the legal signal while the ball was in the air. From what you're saying, because the ball has touched the grounded the the Fair catch is off? Does it say that in the rule book? Once the fair catch signal is given, R is protected until the kick has ended. And when does the kick end?

The better way to state this is that the protection afforded to R under the fair catch rules are no longer applicable once the ball touches the ground.

The rule is 6-5-6 (in NF) and the key words are "in flight", which is defined 2-1-3 as a ball that has not touched the ground. Therefore, you can infer that if that ball has touched the ground, then 6-5-6 (and its association protection of R) do not apply.

Also note that the KCI restrictions are also no longer valid if R touches (think muffs) the ball, even though it hasn't touched the ground.

To answer your question about when the kick ends: The kick ends when one of two things happen. Either 1)the ball becomes dead by rule (goes OOB, etc.) or a player gains possession of the live ball. IF K gains possession beyond the NZ, then 1) and 2) happen at the same time. If R gains possession, the ball is still live (the down is not ended) but the "kick" has ended.

Secondly, there is no rule that states that R is protected until the "kick" has ended. R is only protected as long as certain things have happened, mainly:

1) a valid FC signal was given
2) the ball has not touched the ground
3) the ball has not touched a Team R player

If any of those things happens, then R is not protected and a foul for KCI cannot occur.

My understanding then is R1 (giving a valid fair catch signal) can not block until the kick has ended (usually when the ball is dead except for Bob M's great example), but he loses his protection as soon as the ball hits the ground. If that's correct, he best get out of the way because he can only get himself in trouble.

That's exactly right. It's almost like the reverse mentality of what a FC is all about.

While the FC gives R the protection from being hit by K (and therefore K is holding back), that same R player can't go and slam a K player.

If K's going to leave him alone, then that particular R player should have to leave K alone. It certainly makes trying to figure out who did what and when easier.

If R signals and blocks, it's a foul. Period. (except for Bob's example and then all hell will be breaking loose anyway so we all will probably have forgotten about the FC signal--not that it matters as R's restriction would be off anyhow)