(HOUSTON) — The NFL has suspended Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair for three games without pay after he delivered a devastating and illegal hit to the head of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence during a game Sunday as the signal caller was sliding to the turf.
Jon Runyan, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, announced the suspension on Monday and slammed Al-Shaair for “your lack of sportsmanship and respect for the game of football.”
Besides the violent hit to Lawrence, Runyon said the decision to suspend Al-Shaair was based on repeated violations of rules intended to protect the health and safety of players and promote sportsmanship.
“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,” Runyon wrote in a letter to Al-Shaair.
Al-Shaair signed a three-year, $34 million contract in the offseason. The loss of pay for three games means Al-Shaair could lose up to $2 million, or roughly $666,000 per game.
The video showed Lawrence scrambling out of the pocket and running six yards downfield before taking a feet-first slide. The quarterback’s knee was already on the turf when the 27-year-old Al-Shaair laid him out with a blow to the head with his left forearm that was covered in a brace.
Runyan said Lawrence “clearly goes down in a feet-first slide” when Al-Shaair hit him, leading with his forearm and helmet. Runyan said Al-Shaair “had time and space to avoid such contact.”
The hit sent Lawrence backward, causing the back of his helmet to hit the turf hard. As Lawrence lay on the field at Jacksonville’s EverBank Stadium, his arms appeared to be in what is called a “fencing posture,” an involuntary position associated with a brain injury.
As Lawrence stayed on the ground, a teammate, Evan Engram, retaliated against Al-Shaair, sparking the first of two fights between the teams.
When the dust settled, Al-Shaair was ejected from the game for making the illegal hit around the quarterback’s head and neck area. Engram was assessed a personal foul penalty.
“After the illegal hit, you proceeded to engage in a brawl, which you escalated when you pulled an opponent down to the ground by his facemask,” Runyon said in his letter to Al-Shaair. “After the referee announced that you were disqualified for the hit and your unsportsmanlike acts, you removed your helmet and reengaged with your opponent while walking down and across the field, which started another physical confrontation near the end zone.”
Lawrence suffered a concussion and had to be carted off the field. He didn’t return to the game, which the Texans ended up winning 23-20.
“Your lack of sportsmanship and respect for the game of football and all those who play, coach, and enjoy watching it, is troubling and does not reflect the core values of the NFL,” Runyon wrote to Al-Shaair. “Your continued disregard for NFL playing rules puts the health and safety of both you and your opponents in jeopardy and will not be tolerated.”
Under the NFL collective bargaining agreement, Al-Shaair has a right to appeal the suspension, but it was not immediately clear if he will do that.
In a post-game press conference Sunday, Jaguars coach Doug Peterson called the hit an “unfortunate play.”
“It’s a play that nobody wants to see in our league, obviously, because you see what happens after the fact and it just escalates,” Peterson said.
On Monday, Al-Shaair claimed in a social media post that he “genuinely didn’t see him [Lawrence] sliding until it was too late.”
“To Trevor, I genuinely apologize to you for what ended up happening,” Al-Shaair wrote.
Al-Shaair went on, “I’ve always played the game as hard as I could. Never with the intent to harm anyone and anybody that knows me knows that. My goal is to hit you as hard as I can then I pray you’re still able to get up and play the next play.”
Al-Shaair also said that since the on-field episode, he has been “called every single name in the book from reporters with their hands ready for a story to find their villain to racist and Islamophobic fans and people.”
“You don’t know my heart nor my character which I don’t need to prove to any of you,” Al-Shaair wrote. “God knows my intentions and anyone who has ever been a teammate or friend of mine knows my heart.”
The 25-year-old Lawrence posted a message on the social media site X on Monday, saying he was “feeling better.”
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out / been praying for me,” Lawrence wrote. “I’m home and feeling better. Means a lot, thank you all.”
(NEW YORK) — The NFL locker room is filled with intense emotions, from euphoric athletes celebrating victories to those coping with the pain of defeat. For players, reporters and fans, there’s nothing like being there in the thick of those post-game moments.
However, some NFL players are calling for a “timeout” on reporters conducting locker room interviews.
“If only y’all knew how awkward some of the male reporters act,” former wide receiver Torrey Smith wrote in an X post earlier this month. “Straight meat watchers.”
Some players want to move interviews outside the locker rooms to protect players’ privacy and dignity in the space where they shower and change.
“Well, we’ve had some instances where guys have been naked, and it’s been sent unchecked and unedited,” Lloyd Howell Jr., executive director of the NFL Players Association, said of the situation. “We’ve had hot mics where things have been captured that were never meant to be captured.”
One example is a 2015 Cincinnati Bengals locker room interview that aired on NFL Network, where players could be seen in the background of the broadcast removing towels and changing their clothes.
The Bengals recently said that they will no longer conduct interviews inside their locker room and will instead meet reporters in a different location. The decision came after the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) released a statement urging the league to “make immediate changes” to its media policy.
“Over the past three years, the NFLPA has worked to collaborate with the NFL and the Pro Football Writers of America to move media interviews out of the locker room,” it said.
Some reporters are pushing back. Calvin Watkins, President of the Pro Football Writers of America, who has covered the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams for over two decades, noted that the players already have protections.
“If a player comes out of the shower and he wants to get dressed in the locker room, the team must provide a curtain around his locker stall so he could get dressed in private,” he said.
The media is willing to respect players’ wishes, Watkins said, as long as they still get their interviews. He also noted that this kind of access and the coverage that comes from it has contributed significantly to the NFL’s current status as a globally recognizable and successful brand.
The current NFL media policy notes that interviews “may be conducted outside the locker area” if the club or player requests it.
“However, media representatives must be permitted to request interviews in person with players inside the locker room,” it says.
It also gives the home clubs responsibility for ensuring that both teams’ shower areas are screened from view.
“Each team must provide its players with wrap-around towels or robes, in addition to the standard supply of bath towels for post-game showers,” the policy says.
Other professional sports, such as basketball and baseball, grant reporters even greater access to the locker room.
Christine Brennan was one of the first female reporters allowed inside an NFL locker room, as a beat reporter for the Washington Post in 1985.
The conversation about locker room access has evolved over the course of her career, having been a “man’s domain” in her early days.
“So many of these hard-line old-school coaches didn’t believe women knew football, didn’t believe women should be around the game of football,” Brennan said. “And they fought tooth and nail to prevent people like me from doing my job.”
By 1985, the NFL began requiring equal access for both male and female reporters.
However, the NFLPA’s Howell said today’s debate isn’t about gender at all — it’s about evaluating a longstanding tradition through a 2024 perspective.
“It’s just going to be a very different procedure and I think it’s going to limit the information the fans, followers, observers of the National Football League care so much about,” Brennan said.
