Walt Anderson explains failure to penalize Eagles for Dom DiSandro's actions

Both 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw and Eagles head of security Dom DiSandro were ejected after a second-half sideline altercation on Sunday. But only the Eagles were penalized.

After the game, NFL senior V.P. of officiating Walt Anderson explained the situation to pool reporter Zach Berman.

"The officials had a flag on the field for a personal foul by San Francisco No. 57, and then there was continuing action," Anderson said. "And so what Rule 19 allows us to do is provide assistance by looking at the video. And we saw video that showed that there was a staff person that made contact with the player and that the player involved, No. 57, made contact with the staff member which warranted his disqualification. The non-player, he was contributing to that escalation. Rule 19 does not afford us the ability to help the officials in throwing a flag that they do not throw for a non-player. That's only afforded for a player action."

So, basically, the league office can't tell the on-site officials to flag a non-player, but the league office can eject a non-player.

Which means that Rule 19 needs to change to allow the league to tell the officials to throw the flag. While it didn't impact Sunday's game, the 15 yards of field position could make a difference in the future.

Moving forward, chances are that Greenlaw will be fined. Also, the Eagles and/or DiSandro also likely will be facing some sort of discipline.