Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has been one of many massive storylines within the NFL during the last week after his unlawful hit on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence that the league deemed was worthy of a three-game suspension.
Al-Shaair, in a not-so-subtle social media publish, mentioned he’s now able to be the “villain.”
Whereas the linebacker had appealed the three-game ban, the NFL upheld the suspension on Wednesday.
Shortly after the information broke, Al-Shaair posted a message on X.
“IF YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR VILLAIN, ILL BE YOUR VILLAIN! SEE YOU SOON,” he wrote, together with center finger and jester emojis.
Additionally included within the publish had been 4 photographs: one in all him getting into the sector with Houston, one other of a cleat that had “free” written on it, one with the Joker from the Joaquin Phoenix movies and an image of a quote that learn, “There’s beauty in being rejected, misunderstood, unseen and unprotected by people.”
The suspension and subsequent response all come from a play within the second quarter of the Texans-Jaguars matchup on Sunday after Lawrence scrambled out of the pocket and went down to slip with the intention to keep away from getting hit.
As an alternative, although, Al-Shaair got here in and linked his forearm with Lawrence’s head, which concussed the quarterback and led to each groups preventing on the sector.
Al-Shaair was then ejected from the sport for the violent hit on the signal-caller and has been broadly criticized for the play.
On Monday, he apologized to Lawrence on his Instagram story.
“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. And when the game is over go home to your family unharmed because it’s not personal it’s just competition!” he posted.
“We both are trying to do the same thing which is provide for our families! I genuinely didn’t see him sliding until it was too late. And it all happens in the blink of an eye. To Trevor I genuinely apologize to you for what ended up happening.”
Lawrence was positioned on injured reserve Wednesday, and NFL.com reported that he additionally could have what is probably going season-ending surgical procedure on his shoulder in an unrelated harm.
