Small, possibly misguided, rant...
 

I think icing the kicker in the NFL is dumb...
But...
If a time out is called, I don't think the kicker should be allowed that practice kick.
Players are expected to stop running full speed into a ball carrier on the whistle. Players are expected to veer away from a QB as soon as the ball leaves his hands. Players are expected to adjust their hitting angle based on the offensive player's head placement, all split second decisions. There's no reason a kicker can't stop on the whistle.
I understand that I'm comparing apples to oranges, and that the rules I mentioned are about "player safety," where kicking a free ball isn't. However, if I'm a defensive player, and the kicker is gonna get a chance to practice the exact kick he'll be trying, and everyone else has stopped, I'm blocking the damn thing... And then it does become a player safety issue.

Or maybe coaches should just not call the time out. :shrug:

Yeah, I can go with that. Make it an Unsportsman Like penalty, and that kicker will stop his motion real quick when he hears the whistle.

And on a side note, did Carroll call a TO or not? He was up that side judge's ass pretty deep, looking like he was pissed he called the timeout.

I don't like "icing the kicker". I think it's stupid. But, you are correct. If the TO is called, the kicker should not take a practice kick or be penalized.

Like I said, I'm all for not "icing" in the NFL. I think it's worthless.
I just don't think, if a coach tries it, the kicker should get a free shot.

This.

It's a Shanarat invention, so you know it's dirty. The kicking team should have every advantage at their disposal to punish teams for doing it.

asking a bit much for a kicker who is zoned in to making a kick to stop what he is doing and possibly risking injury. Much like a batter who steps out in baseball as a pitcher you are instructed to go through the motion.

No real way of stopping him from kicking it. Often, nobody on the field even knows a TO was called. Idiot coaches even try to call the TO right before the ball is snapped.

It all goes back to not doing this icing garbage. Is there any stat that says it works?

At least when SEA made there other boner of passing on a FG in the 1st, there's stats that suggest going for it is the right thing to do.

I guess the issue is that those kicks are very frequently made when the crowd is going nuts and it's next to impossible to hear the whistle in the middle of the field. I'd think any type of rule you'd try to make would be completely unenforceable.

I read lips about as well as Stevie Wonder, but it looked pretty clear that he said timeout in the ref's ear.
Not to say he couldn't have been saying, "I'm not calling a timeout."

That's a tough call, because there have been times where the coach has literally called a timeout the second before the ball is snapped. The kicker isn't even paying attention to that.

Every other player on the field is expected to hear it, and react accordingly or be penalized. Are kickers just more inherently hard of hearing?

It did look like that. Maybe he was just pissed that it took the ref as long as it did to call the timeout, letting Bryant go through with the attempt and miss the first one?

I just can't go along with the argument that the kicker, holder, and snapper all go deaf, while the other 19 players on the same field have all pulled up due to the whistle.

Note that the other examples you mention in the OP aren't reacting to a whistle - they're reacting to a visual cue on the field. Also note that there are many times when players keep going for 5-10 seconds after a whistle has blown because they can't hear it.