(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) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION LA Clippers 126, Denver 122 Memphis 136, Indiana 121 Orlando 100, Brooklyn 92 New York 118, New Orleans 85 Cleveland 115, Boston 111 Toronto 119, Miami 116 Houston 119, Oklahoma City 116 LA Lakers 105, Utah 104 Dallas 137, Portland 131 San Antonio 127, Sacramento 125
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Vancouver 5 Detroit 4 (OT) Columbus 6, Chicago 3 Boston 6, Montreal 3 Dallas 3, Winnipeg 1 Anaheim 4 Ottawa 3 (SO)
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Houston 23, Jacksonville 20 Indianapolis 25, New England 24 LA Chargers 17, Atlanta 13 Minnesota 23, Arizona 22 Pittsburgh 44, Cincinnati 38 Seattle 26, NY Jets 21 Washington 42, Tennessee 19 LA Rams 21, New Orleans 14 Tampa Bay 26, Carolina 23 (OT) Philadelphia 24, Baltimore 19 Buffalo 35, San Francisco 10
(NEW YORK) — Extreme heat could pose a significant threat to players and spectators at the next World Cup, according to climate and medical experts.
The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will take place in the summer of 2026 in North America — during the hottest part of the year — and several of the venues could prove to be unsafe for players during the middle of the day, when the sun will be at its highest, according to a study published in Scientific Reports on Thursday.
“The Championship will be held over a huge area, in several climate zones, so it will be a challenge for the soccer players taking part in the tournament, due to the need for quick adaptation to diverse local climate conditions,” Kate Lindner-Cendrowska, a researcher at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization at the Polish Academy of Sciences and an author of the study, told ABC News.
Footballers competing in the tournament may be at risk of severe heat stress and dehydration at 10 of the 16 host cities, the researchers found after analyzing historical weather data from 2009 to 2023 from Copernicus, Europe’s Climate Change Service, to mimic the temperature, wind and humidity from mid-June through mid-July observed at each of the 16 World Cup locations.
To simulate the pitch conditions that footballers would experience during a match, values were then adjusted for the Universal Thermal Climate Index — a measure of how the human body responds to the outdoor environment.
The sites with the highest risk were found to be in Monterrey, Mexico; Arlington, Texas; and Houston — which had suggested average hourly UTCI values above 49.5 degrees Celsius, or 121.1 degrees Fahrenheit, the researchers found. The dataset assumes that the stadiums are not air conditioned or that other measures are taken, which would reduce levels of water loss and heat stress in some scenarios, according to the researchers.
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami and NRG Stadium in Houston are all air-conditioned — as is Estadio Monterrey in Mexico. But all of those locations are typically hot and humid during the summer months, and global warming is expanding the regions in which heat stress is a concern.
During a Copa America game played in Kansas City in June, a referee collapsed from apparent heat illness as the heat index hovered at 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
“I think we already have the context for the 2026 FIFA World Cup because we just witnessed the Copa America tournament in North America,” Jessica Murfree, assistant professor of sports administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told ABC News. “I think that that competition serves as an excellent litmus test on heat related risks that we will be able to expect in 2026.”
Heat illness typically results from a combination of factors, such as high ambient temperatures, humidity, physical activity and inadequate fluid intake, according to Copernicus.
During sports competitions that involve intense physical activity, such as soccer, players can experience significant thermoregulatory strain, which may be further intensified by the thermal environment, Lindner-Cendrowska said. In addition, in response to prolonged exercise in a hot environment, intense sweating is triggered, which may result in dehydration of the body, she added. Soccer is especially labor-intensive, because players exert physicality “full-on” for 45 minutes until halftime with little breaks, Murfree said.
“In [a] hot environment, it is difficult to remove the excess heat from the body, what may lead to fatigue, overheating of the athletes’ body and exertional heat illnesses,” she said. “It is a particular serious threat for highly motivated athletes, because they have very limited options for compensation during the long-term competitions.”
Heat impacts over a long period of time can even go beyond that, Kai Chen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, told ABC News. High temperatures can affect the cardiovascular system, leading to heart attacks and stroke as well as other systems of diseases, such as kidney failure and mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety and more suicide attempts, Chen said.
“The adverse impacts of heat on the human body is really substantial,” Chen said, adding that heat is the leading weather-related killer, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2026 World Cup will take place across Canada, Mexico and the U.S. between June 11 and July 19, 2026, when summer temperatures across North America are nearing their average peak. If the last few summers are any indication, 2026 will likely follow the trend of record-breaking heat, Chen said.
“We know temperatures in the mainland U.S. have been increasing,” he said. “Unfortunately with a warming climate, the trend is going to increase.”
Scheduling games with the intent to prevent heat stress will be of the utmost importance, the researchers said.
The highest thermal stress at all stadiums is estimated to occur from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. local time. The one exception was in Miami, which observed a longer time frame, with its highest UTCI values between 11 a.m. and midday.
Past studies on former World Cup venues have highlighted the negative effects for players who compete in high relative humidities, including in Brazil in 2014.
The continued heat coverage may bring more attention to the climate crisis, as international fans see their favorite sports stars suffering from the impacts of extreme heat, Murfree said.
“Sports has this massive, transformative platform to move people into climate action in ways that other systems don’t,” she said.
