Exactly. No matter how dumb the NFL wants to be, a player is responsible to his teammates when he takes the field. Whenever you knowingly and willfully take a 15 yard penalty, you make it harder for your teammates to do their jobs.
Everybody remembers Rayner flubbing that kickoff, which was terrible, but he wouldn't have been in a position to try kicking the crap out of the ball if he was kicking from the 35.