NFL Gives World’s Lamest Excuse For Why Trent Williams Wasn’t Ejected For Punch To A’Shawn Robinson

NFL games are rough, rugged and extremely, extremely violent.

But there are some boundaries that you’re just not supposed to cross.

You don’t poke people in the eyes (lookin’ at you, Shedeur.) You don’t go around aiming at guys knees and or hitting them below the belt. And you 100 percent don’t throw punches.

Unless, of course, you’re San Francisco 49ers superstar left tackle Trent Williams.

Williams got into a skirmish with New York Giants defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson on Thursday night and wound up throwing a short right hook to the face of Robinson (who was wearing a helmet at the time. Solid thinking, Trent).

The punch was plain to see and happened just feet in front of an onlooking official. And yet, somehow, Williams was not ejected. Both he and Robinson were called for unsportsmanlike conduct, with both penalties offsetting.

So, uh…what gives?

Well, the he NFL Senior’s Vice President of Officiating, Walt Anderson, attempted to answer that question during an interview with a pool reporter after the game.

The answer was about as lame as you’d expect.

“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, which is the standard that we have to apply to disqualify the player,” Anderson said of why Williams got to stay in the game.

I mean, look, we’ve got no dog in the fight.

But if a 6-foot-5, 320-pound man throwing a punch to the head isn’t flagrant, what exactly is flagrant?

Williams called the punch a “love tap” and said that he didn’t think it warranted being thrown out of the game.

San Francisco went on to take a commanding 30-12 victory.

Would an ejection have changed the outcome? Probably not.

But there needs to be some line in the sand out there. Otherwise it’s just anarchy.