Shortly before halftime in Thursday night's game pitting the San Francisco 49ers against the New York Giants, there was a confrontation between Niners left tackle Trent Williams and Giants defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson. Williams appeared to throw a right-handed punch at Robinson's facemask, and in response, Robinson struck Williams in the neck area after being pushed by Niners guard Aaron Banks. Williams retaliated with a punch to Robinson's facemask.
This skirmish resulted in penalty flags for unnecessary roughness being thrown at both players, forcing the Niners' quarterback, Brock Purdy, to kneel to end the half. However, given the punch, the Giants questioned why Williams was not ejected from the game.
Walt Anderson, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating, addressed the situation after the San Francisco 49ers' 30-12 victory. He explained that his crew reviewed the play using available video footage to determine if any further action was warranted.
"We ended up looking at the video we had available to us, and we just didn't see anything that rose to the level of flagrant," Anderson said. "Which is the standard that we have to apply to disqualify the player."
Anderson further elaborated that officials assess the flagrancy of a punch based on factors such as whether it was delivered with a closed fist, an open-hand slap, or a stiff-arm to the face. According to Anderson, a closed-fist punch carries more weight in such assessments.
Although Williams seemed to throw a closed-fist punch at Robinson, Anderson stated that the officials did not have a replay angle that definitively showed this.
"We couldn't confirm that 100 percent from the standpoint of was it truly a closed fist with a strike," Anderson said. "We just couldn't determine that."
The incident occurred with around 13 seconds left in the second quarter when San Francisco was kneeling to conclude the half. After Banks pushed Robinson, an argument ensued between Robinson and Williams.
Williams commented on the situation, saying, "Just mixing it up. A lot of tempers flaring out there, it's a competitive game, and sometimes things boil over a little bit."
Robinson was asked about the incident after the game but offered minimal response, primarily stating, "I don't know."
Both Williams and Robinson have faced each other several times in the past three years when Robinson played for the Los Angeles Rams. Williams also expressed doubt about facing fines for his actions, describing it as a "love tap" that wasn't particularly forceful.