San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams got away with a punch to the facemask of New York Giants defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson on Thursday night.
Andrew Fillipponi and Danny Parkins of the Audacy original podcast “1st & Pod” reacted to Williams’ actions and opined that the NFL should've used video review to eject the offensive tackle.
“They should have something in place like they do in other sports where if a dude throws a punch and the refs miss it somebody upstairs should buzz down and say ‘Throw the guy out of the game,’” Fillipponi said (4:27 in player above). “Trent Williams should not have been allowed to play in the second half of this football game.”
Williams and Robinson got into it at the end of the first half.
They were unable to determine if it was a closed fist with a strike, though, so Williams was not ejected.
“Crazy miss,” Parkins said. “And I agree with you, if you’re going to have replay it feels like the type of thing that should be buzzed down from the tower, so to speak, called in from New York.”
Both players were assessed unnecessary roughness penalties, but it didn’t feel like the punishment met the crime.
“It reminds me of pro wrestling like the ref gets knocked out in the match and then some bad guy hits a dude with a steel chair and wins. This is not sports entertainment. This is real life,” Fillipponi said. “If we’re going to act tough about player safety we should not allow for guys to get punched in the face and just say ‘Well, the refs missed it. Let’s move on.’
“Nothing gets missed. We’ve got replay cameras everywhere and people upstairs who are in charge of seeing those things and disciplining those things.”
Williams may ultimately get fined for his actions but a suspension would be unexpected.
“He won’t get suspended,” Fillipponi said. “He’ll just get fined a lot of money, but he makes so much money, Trent Williams, that he probably doesn’t give a s–t.”