Well, Trent Williams certainly looked different Thursday night.
Amazon and analyst Kirk Herbstreit made a cringeworthy mistake during the Rams’ win over the 49ers when the broadcast and announcer misidentified Nesta Jade Silvera as Williams.
“There’s Trent Williams,” Herbstreit said as the screen instead showed Silvera with a chyron stating he was Williams, “who’s a big part of the grit of that offensive line and they really miss him up front, not only because of his talent, just because his presence and what his presence means to that offensive line and kind of the personality of that offensive line.”
One of the troubles with live broadcasting is the difficulty in pivoting when things are off and clearly something went amiss for the “Thursday Night Football” crew during the NFC West clash.
Amazon had a graphic created for Williams and clearly had a segment planned with Herbstreit discussing how his absence would affect the team.
The camera operator then just had to find Williams on the sideline and, well, that part of the process did not go to plan.
Instead, the world saw Silvera, a practice squad defensive tackle in his second season.
Herbstreit, either unaware of the mistake or not wanting to shine light on the error, plowed through his thought with less than five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Naturally, social media jumped on the mistake.
“Ummmm Thursday night football, that black man is NOT Trent Williams. I repeat, wrong black guy. @49ers,” NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho tweeted.
Former Giants lineman Geoff Schwartz posted: “Trent Williams looks different. 😂.”
Thankfully, the broadcast found him in a suite roughly three minutes later in terms of the game clock.
“Trent Williams, of course, they missed him, the left tackle, there he is missing his fourth game, with 10 days before their next game,” Al Michaels said.
Thursday night proved to be an awful night for anyone associated with the 49ers.
Not only did San Francisco lose at home to drop to 6-8 in a potentially fatal blow to its playoff chances, but linebacker De’Vondre Campbell essentially quit on the team.
Campbell exited the field during the third quarter after being told to go into the game.
49ers star George Kittle and other teammates ripped Campbell, with the tight end labeling the decision as “dumb,” “stupid” and “immature.”
