Is kicking a fumble legal?

[PackersFTW]

I saw a highlight of the Bengals game, where the snap went over the punter's head, and the punter ran after it and kicked it out of bounds so that the other team didn't recover it and run it in for a touchdown. I would have figured this to be illegal somehow, otherwise you could just kick it out of bounds after your team fumbles so that you retain possession. Maybe because it was 4th down it didn't matter? Still wouldn't there be some kind of penalty? (Could have been one, I don't know.) Still, it got me thinking about kicking fumbles (out of bounds or not) and all the rules that surround it.

[Cobra]

Yes, that is a foul...the kick was not a drop kick, punt, nor place kick. The defense must have declined the penalty as it was 4th down.

[mikesears]

The gamebook has this entry:

(2:31) (Punt formation) D.Colquitt Aborted. T.Gafford FUMBLES at KC 30, ball out of bounds at KC 7.
Penalty on KC-D.Colquitt, Illegal Touch Kick, declined. {Colquitt kicked the fumbled snap out of bounds without gaining possession, Colquitt
credited with a rush for 0 yards}


Penalty for the foul was declined.

[PackersFTW]

It says "without gaining possession". Does that mean you can boot a fumble 20 yards down field, and have your team go after it, or do you personally have to go recover the kicked ball? I assume the latter, otherwise it would make sense to kick a fumble forward in certain situations, such as where you have to score, but clearly won't be able to pick it up and run it in. BTW I never thought of checking the game log, which I've done before.

[Robert Goodman]

Since 1900 it's been illegal to kick a loose ball in American rules, but this is one of those situations where the penalty's not worse than the play. It's 4th down and the ball is loose in your end zone, what do you have to lose?

In Canadian football it's still legal to dribble a loose ball. However, if you dribble a loose ball that's behind your goal line out of bounds in goal, a situation unwary players sometimes think will be equivalent to touching it down for a 1- or 2-pt score, the other team has an option to scrimmage themselves, similarly to Rugby Union where it's a 5 m scrum.

So suppose you wanted to make the American rule more stringent, to make recovering the ball more favorable than illegally kicking or batting it. What would you do that wouldn't make it too great a punishment? The Canadian rule seems too stringent.

[PackersFTW]

I'll go try to Google this some more. I'm still confused about what happens if it's not 4th down, you boot it 20 yards down field, and the defense recovers the ball. Do they decline the penalty (which is what exactly, 10 yards? 15?)? What if the defense kicks it and then recovers? I'm guessing the offense accepts the penalty and it automatically reverts back to the offense or something?