Any time you spend almost five months trying to reach the NFL’s summit, the Super Bowl, and still fall short, emotions will understandably run high. After all that hard work and effort, it almost feels like it all might have been wasted.
But nothing excuses how the San Francisco 49ers and Trent Williams reacted at the end of a 31-7 NFC title game blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. With the 49ers’ chances of winning partly influenced by an unfortunate quarterback-injury situation (one that almost saw Christian McCaffrey take snaps), frustrations started to boil over.
Late in the fourth quarter, it was perennial First-Team All-Pro Trent Williams who took the 49ers to their emotional peak, starting a fight well after the play:
Trent Williams has had enough annnnd here come the punches pic.twitter.com/J6JclcKBM0
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) January 29, 2023
For an established veteran like Williams to come so close to a Super Bowl and still fall short is undeniably tough to swallow. But acting like a sore loser down multiple scores is uncalled for.
Even with the 49ers’ injuries, the Eagles undoubtedly earned their berth in Super Bowl 57. Williams and Co. could’ve just taken their lumps like every conference runner-up rather than escalating their defeat to an unnecessary place.