NFL made embarrassing admission during 49ers' Thursday night win vs. Seahawks

Apparently, the NFL doesn't have access to the high-resolution camera footage from the 49ers and Seahawks' Thursday Night Football broadcast.

Week 6's rendition of Thursday Night Football between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks had plenty of quirks and strange moments.

The officiating wasn't particularly great, and there were some questionable calls. But one stood out in particular.

Early in the fourth quarter, at a point when the Niners were holding onto a precarious lead while the Hawks were surging, punter Mitch Wishnowsky delivered a 49-yard punt that received a fair-catch call, only to receive a preliminary flag on the play because one of San Francisco's gunners ran into the punt returner, cornerback Dee Williams.

Correctly called, the flag was picked up because another Seattle special teams ace pushed the 49ers gunner into Williams.

End of story, right? Well, no.

Immediately thereafter, head coach Kyle Shanahan threw a challenge flag, challenging the ball touched Williams' finger. Since safety Jalen Graham recovered the loose ball on the play, it would have been a Niners ball on a muffed punt.

Play reviewed. Call on the field stood.

End of story, right? Well, no.

NFL embarrassed itself with glaring admission during Thursday Night Football

On the Amazon Prime broadcast, former NFL official Terry McAuley explained to the broadcast tandem of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit how there's a pretty clear angle of the ball hitting Williams' finger, and it should have been a San Francisco ball, making the replay review incorrect.

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"We've seen two different angles where it's pretty clear it hits the finger of the receiving team player and then there's a clear recovery," McAuley said. "I believe this should have been reversed to San Francisco's football."

Even that right there isn't the end of the story. After all, watch the NFL long enough, and you're bound to see a replay review get something wrong.

Not long after McAuley's disagreement, the TNF broadcast passed along some rather disturbing information.

Apparently, according to the broadcast and later revealed via Pro Football Talk, the NFL does not have all the camera angles and high-resolution footage of the field that Amazon Prime had during the game.

Yes, you read that right.

So, while fans across the country were clearly watching the ball hit Williams' finger, the NFL replay room couldn't see that exact same footage because they didn't have access to it.

Did no one in the replay room have an Amazon Prime account? Seriously?

It's a bad look for the NFL, which has prided itself on getting calls right and using every bit of technology at its disposal to do so. It's even worse for a report to leak out suggesting the league doesn't have access to all the media's camera angles and footage in real time, too.

Luckily for the 49ers, the momentum shift didn't last too long, and they were able to surge back from Seattle's late-game push to take a 36-24 victory at Lumen Field.

Had the Niners lost, though, there likely would have been hell to pay from fans and players alike.

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