Azeez Al-Shaair suspension, explained: Why NFL banned Texans LB for 3 games

[T-post Tom]

Happy not to see your raggedy ass on the 21st mother****er. And your GM can stfu


Azeez Al-Shaair suspension, explained

Al-Shaair has been suspended three games "for repeated violations of rules intended to protect the health and safety of players and promote sportsmanship," the NFL said in an official release.

As noted above, Al-Shaair is considered to be a repeat offender of unsportsmanlike plays, contributing to his three-game suspension without pay. Al-Shaair is eligible to return to the field during Houston's regular-season finale in Week 18.

NFL Vice President of Football Operations Jon Runyan issued the suspension and had the following to say of Al-Shaair's hit on Lawrence:

During your game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on December 1, with 4:20 remaining in the second quarter, you were involved in a play that the League considers unacceptable and a serious violation of the playing rules. Video shows you striking the head/neck area of Jaguars' quarterback Trevor Lawrence after he clearly goes down for a feet-first slide…You led with your forearm and helmet and delivered a forceful blow to the head/neck area of your opponent when you had time and space to avoid such contact.

In addition to the hit on Lawrence, the NFL's announcement cited Al-Shaair's escalation of the on-field brawl and the removal of his helmet to reengage with Jaguars players before exiting the field as reasons for the ban.

Al-Shaair is appealing his three-game suspension, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Players are permitted to appeal League-imposed suspensions per the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Texans GM Nick Caserio did not hold back when he addressed the media about Al-Shaair's suspension.

A fiery Caserio cited other examples of punishments handed to other players, claiming there is "no consistency relative to the level of discipline that's been handed down." He went on to speak highly of Al-Shaair's character, calling parts of the NFL's statement "embarrassing" and "bulls—."

Azee Al-Shaair timeline of trouble

Al-Shaair is in his sixth NFL season and his first with the Texans. His hit on Lawrence is the third notable incident of his career and his second notable incident of the 2024 season.

Tom Brady throat grab

In 2022, Al-Shaair put his hands on Tom Brady's throat during a game between the 49ers and Buccaneers. In response, Brady checked in with the officials to ask why the linebacker wasn't called for a penalty.

Roschon Johnson punch

In Week 2 of the 2024 season, Al-Shaair delivered a punch to the helmet of Bears RB Roschon Johnson at the end of a play on "Sunday Night Football." Officials did not see the punch and Al-Shaair was not penalized in the moment.

The punch came after Al-Shaair delivered a hard hit on Bears QB Caleb Williams, though it wasn't a head-to-head blow. He was later fined $11,000 for the punch, and Texans coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters, "we can’t throw punches," while defending the hit on Williams.

Trevor Lawrence hit, ejection

Al-Shaair was ejected Sunday after a devastating hit to Lawrence's head, knocking the Jaguars quarterback out of the game. Al-Shaair continued to fight with various Jaguars after the play, and was escorted off the field by security.

Trevor Lawrence injury update

Lawrence has been diagnosed with a concussion from the hit, the Jaguars announced Sunday.

Following the game, Lawrence emerged from the locker room with his wife, Marissa, walking under his own power. Head coach Doug Pederson did not confirm nor deny whether Lawrence would play again this year, but he did mention he will enter concussion protocol. Lawrence made it home after the game and says that he is feeling better.


https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/...989ec0f1a3920e

[Rainbarrel]

Going to have to cut the testosterone down to one testicle in the future

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by wazu

Here is the video:



I tried pausing it to see how much time Azeez had to "pull-up" and not hit Lawrence, and these are literally two frames back-to-back:

Video mark: 06 seconds:



Video mark: 07 seconds:



Trevor Lawrence waited too long to slide because he wanted that first down.

What a load of crap. I went to the video you posted and stopped it at the point you did at approximately 6 seconds. The positions of the players on the field were close to identical. I then advanced it frame by frame with ">" key. I was able to advance it 50 times before I got to your second frame.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

What a load of crap. I went to the video you posted and stopped it at the point you did at approximately 6 seconds. The positions of the players on the field were close to identical. I then advanced it frame by frame with ">" key. I was able to advance it 50 times before I got to your second frame.

You're right, was using the wrong keyboard key to advance. The way I was doing it was skipping to the next new second in the video. The period key advances it more gradually. Still less than a second between Lawrence standing straight up, and him being down on the ground concussed.

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by wazu

You're right, was using the wrong keyboard key to advance. The way I was doing it was skipping to the next new second in the video. The period key advances it more gradually. Still less than a second between Lawrence standing straight up, and him being down on the ground concussed.

It happens to all of us, but your reasoning here is still faulty. There was more than enough time for him to pull up. A MLB player has approximately just .125 seconds to make their swing/don't swing decision and they do it multiple times per plate appearance. Not only that, they often change their minds and attempt to check their swing after making that decision.

There was more than enough time for Shaiir to pull up. He didn't do that because what he really wanted to do was smash Lawrence as hard as he could.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

What a load of crap. I went to the video you posted and stopped it at the point you did at approximately 6 seconds. The positions of the players on the field were close to identical. I then advanced it frame by frame with ">" key. I was able to advance it 50 times before I got to your second frame.

Not sure that’s possible. I think YT runs at about 20 frames/second.

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Not sure that’s possible. I think YT runs at about 20 frames/second.

Try it yourself.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

It happens to all of us, but your reasoning here is still faulty. There was more than enough time for him to pull up. A MLB player has approximately just .125 seconds to make their swing/don't swing decision and they do it multiple times per plate appearance. Not only that, they often change their minds and attempt to check their swing after making that decision.

There was more than enough time for Shaiir to pull up. He didn't do that because what he really wanted to do was smash Lawrence as hard as he could.

I feel like it's more comparable to "I've already started swinging the bat, but see that it's a ball and should try to check swing." Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.

For me it's too fast. And also very telling that it happened right at the first down line marker. Lawrence wants that first down bad, so he waits too long to slide, and Azeez commits fully to hitting him hard to knock his ass back and prevent that first down from happening.

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by wazu

I feel like it's more comparable to "I've already started swinging the bat, but see that it's a ball and should try to check swing." Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.

For me it's too fast. And also very telling that it happened right at the first down line marker. Lawrence wants that first down bad, so he waits too long to slide, and Azeez commits fully to hitting him hard to knock his ass back and prevent that first down from happening.

I disagree. He had well more than enough time to recognize that Lawrence was sliding. Lawrence will be marked down at the spot where he began the slide, so the only point in hitting him is to hit him. He also led with his arm wearing that brace. The guy has a history and you don't get the benefit of the doubt when you have a history.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

I disagree. He had well more than enough time to recognize that Lawrence was sliding. Lawrence will be marked down at the spot where he began the slide, so the only point in hitting him is to hit him. He also led with his arm wearing that brace. The guy has a history and you don't get the benefit of the doubt when you have a history.

"The guy has a history". I was ready to accept this as a reason to believe the worst. (i.e. if this were Derwin James I would view it through a much more judgemental lens.)

But his prior offense was to touch Tom Brady's neck and have Brady whine about it, and then earlier this year he apparently punched a Chicago running back. Over an entire 6 year career that's all the "dirty" plays they could conjure up to justify this?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by wazu

I feel like it's more comparable to "I've already started swinging the bat, but see that it's a ball and should try to check swing." Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.

For me it's too fast. And also very telling that it happened right at the first down line marker. Lawrence wants that first down bad, so he waits too long to slide, and Azeez commits fully to hitting him hard to knock his ass back and prevent that first down from happening.

Lawrence started his slide before the first down marker, so if that was his intent, he did a shitty job of it.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Lawrence started his slide before the first down marker, so if that was his intent, he did a shitty job of it.

He ended up past it. They would mark him down where he started, I get that. I also would expect some part of his brain was conflicted by the fact that Azeez was screaming towards him. Again, it's a bang-bang play and a lot of trying to judge intent and how much time it takes to process and react to everything. If the NFL wants to just send a message, then suspend 1 game. Whether that's justice or not it at least sends a message to NFL defenders not to **** with QBs, which seems to be the goal of all these rules.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by wazu

He ended up past it. They would mark him down where he started, I get that. I also would expect some part of his brain was conflicted by the fact that Azeez was screaming towards him. Again, it's a bang-bang play and a lot of trying to judge intent and how much time it takes to process and react to everything. If the NFL wants to just send a message, then suspend 1 game. Whether that's justice or not it at least sends a message to NFL defenders not to **** with QBs, which seems to be the goal of all these rules.

They clearly said that the suspension was escalated because he wouldn't shut up and get off the field once he was tossed from the game and instead kept going after the Jags players. He didn't get 3 games for the hit alone.

Even so, I personally expect they'll drop it to 2 games on appeal.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by DaFace

They clearly said that the suspension was escalated because he wouldn't shut up and get off the field once he was tossed from the game and instead kept going after the Jags players. He didn't get 3 games for the hit alone.

Even so, I personally expect they'll drop it to 2 games on appeal.

Well then maybe he'll be back for Juju to give him some linebacker love:

[MarkDavis'Haircut]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

Brady brought up a good point yesterday essentially saying the onus on protecting the QB should be on the QB, not the defender. If you don't want to get hit by someone who is known to play the game hard, slide earlier. When you watch it full speed, it is bang-bang. I agree Shaair's actions after the play were uncalled for and likely triggered the longer suspension.

As far as I'm concerned the NFL can poop in its own hat with its "concern" over player safety. They have a concern about money when starting QB's go down and viewership taking a hit. Yeah, lets have 4 hard hitting playoff teams play on a Wednesday late in the season when they don't have time to recover from the week before.

Brady whined for flags more than any other QB around.

[MarkDavis'Haircut]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

Sports talk radio in Houston is really defensive about this. They're saying it was a dirty hit and he deserves to be suspended, but that everyone is just after this guy. Some are even saying it's racism and he's being singled out just because he's Muslim.

He mentioned Islamphobia in his apology.

Professional victimhood is the big thing now.