Ray-Ray McCloud disputes the notion that he muffed a punt in Super Bowl 2024.

Late in the third quarter on Sunday, McCloud, the 49ers’ return man, attempted to field a punt from Chiefs punter Taylor Townsend off the ground.

McCloud, 27, could not quite snag the ball, it was recovered by the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes hit Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a touchdown shortly thereafter.

One fan on X blamed McCloud for this moment and for the Niners’ Super Bowl loss.

“Brock Purdy is a Super Bowl champion right now if this punt isn’t muffed and it won’t get talked about but the chiefs offense was cooked up until they got gifted this,” X user @iam_johnw tweeted on Sunday night.

McCloud saw the tweet on Monday, and fired back.

“If you don’t know football don’t speak about the play! Cuz that’s not a muff goofy boy!” the Niners’ return man wrote.

McCloud does have a point — replays indicated that the ball had hit the foot of Niners defensive back Darrell Luter Jr.

The practical implication of this was that it was a live ball, and McCloud had to go for it.

Initially, when it had not been clear that the ball had hit Luter’s foot first, it seemed as though McCloud had been foolish for attempting to field the punt instead of letting the ball lie.

While Niners fans would certainly prefer that McCloud had fielded it cleanly, he is correct that it was not a muff and there was also no mental mistake on his part on the play.