How NFL replay officials completely blew that missed Seahawks muffed punt call on replay

Everyone watching on television could see it, and yet the NFL’s replay center couldn’t at the time: Seattle Seahawks returner Dee Williams definitely had a punt touch his finger, which meant it was a live ball up for grabs for the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night.

The Niners recovered it, but officials said it didn’t touch Williams, and after Kyle Shanahan challenged, the call … stood?

So what happened? Here’s what was said, per officials via Pro Football Talk: “NFL Vice President of Replay Training and Development Mark Butterworth explained after the game that the replay office only saw the conclusive angle at the same time the audience saw it, when referee Craig Wrolstad was announcing that the play would stand.”

Here’s more:

“Once we had the San Francisco challenge, we were looking to see if the returner did indeed touch the ball,” Butterworth told pool reporter Brady Henderson. “We went through all available angles, and we get the raw feed from the truck. And there was not clear and obvious video evidence that the returner touched the ball. After looking at all available angles, we made the determination that we were going to stand on the call because there was not clear and obvious video evidence. Once Craig made his announcement and they came back from TV, the network had an enhanced shot that they did not send at all until after they played his announcement.”

There was also this from NBC’s Terry McAulay:

The Niners won, but still … not great!