49ers’ Trent Williams punches Giants player, avoids ejection

As the Niners prepared to kneel and run out the clock at the end of the second quarter, Giants defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson barreled through San Francisco guard Aaron Banks, breaking the decorum both sides of the ball usually keep during kneel-down plays. Banks shoved Robinson in retaliation, but then the New York player got in Williams’ face.

Williams and Robinson exchanged words, the Giants lineman gave him a tap on the helmet, and the Niners lineman responded with a punch that broadcast cameras caught.

Yellow officiating flags were immediately launched into the air as each side started bumping chests with the other. Referee Shawn Hochuli then told both teams to return to their respective sidelines, and informed the Santa Clara crowd that Williams and Robinson were each called for unnecessary roughness. The penalties would offset, and the previous down would be replayed.

Somehow, Williams, who was caught in HDR — Amazon does not stream the games in 4K, so that saying doesn’t apply here — avoided a disqualification from the game. Many fans were understandably confused as there are many instances over the past few years of players getting ejected from games for doing pretty much what Williams did.

As Kevin Seifert noted in a 2017 blog for ESPN, punching someone does not technically lead to an automatic ejection under the NFL’s rules. An official can determine that something player did was worthy of an ejection if they decide it was “flagrant” — the league defines this as something that’s “extremely objectionable, conspicuous, unnecessary, avoidable, or gratuitous”  — but that still falls under an official’s discretion. Even under Section 2, Article 14, of the rulebook, which specifically prohibits “striking, kicking, tripping or kneeing opponents,” the rules leave it up to the on-field zebras to make a judgment call.

“Penalty: Loss of 15 yards,” the rulebook reads. “If any of the fouls is judged by the official(s) to be flagrant, the offender may be disqualified as long as the entire action is observed by the official(s). If the foul is by the defense, it is also an automatic first down.”

Either one of two things happened: Every official on the field, including the sky judge, somehow missed the Williams punch, or the officials thought the post-whistle strike was in no way “flagrant.” Regardless, the 49ers still have their All-Pro tackle in the game.