League 'couldn't confirm' 49ers' Williams threw closed-fist strike

After San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams appeared to have thrown a punch at New York Giants defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson, the league said it could not certify it was a closed-fist strike.

"We couldn't confirm that 100 percent from the standpoint of was it truly a closed fist with a strike," NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

He added: "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."

The incident occurred right before halftime in the team's Thursday Night matchup.

Trent Williams just punched A'Shawn Williams in the face lmao pic.twitter.com/TgaxaZJ5fX

- Alex Wilson (@AlexWilsonESM) September 22, 2023

The skirmish drew unnecessary roughness penalties on both sides, which resulted in quarterback Brock Purdy kneeling to end the first half.

"Just mixing it up," Williams said after the game, according to Nick Woegner of ESPN. "A lot of tempers flaring out there, it's a competitive game and sometimes things boil over a little bit."

The 35-year-old Williams added that he doesn't expect to be fined by the league for the incident.

"I don't think so," he said. "It was a love tap. It wasn't that hard."

San Francisco extended its regular-season win streak to 13 games with the victory over the Giants on Thursday night. The 49ers take on the Arizona Cardinals in Week 4.

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