Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair called NFL fans frustrated with his vicious tackle of Trevor Lawrence “Islamophobic” in an X post on Monday.
On Sunday afternoon, the Texans were playing against the Jacksonville Jaguars, when Lawrence (Jacksonville’s quarterback) decided to run upfield with the ball. As he was sliding, Al-Shaair lunged forward and slammed the quarterback to the ground, causing him to go unconscious and ultimately be ruled out of the game with a concussion.
So unnecessary.
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) December 2, 2024
So dirty.
So against the brotherhood. pic.twitter.com/FHWwg5BlOH
In my opinion, that’s a dirty hit. While Al-Shaair probably could not have stopped his momentum, I think he could have done more to avoid clocking Lawrence in the head.
Regardless, the day after the hit, he offered an apology to the quarterback for his hit.
All Praise to Allah🤲🏾 pic.twitter.com/pEbCRAg8fF
— Azeez Al-shaair (@A_train2_) December 2, 2024
"I genuinely didn't see him sliding until it was too late," Al-Shaair, who is clearly Muslim, wrote. "And it all happens in the blink of an eye. To Trevor I genuinely apologize to you for what ended up happening. Before the game we spoke and I told you how it was great to see you back out on the field and wished you well. I would never want to see any player hurt because of a hit I put on them especially one that's deemed ‘late’ or ‘unnecessary.’"
That’s a pretty good apology! He seems remorseful for what he did. But then his statement took a really weird turn.
Al-Shaair accused fans of Islamophobia because they were upset with his hit.
"To the rest of the people who I've 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.
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Okay, back the truck up for just a minute. This was, at the very least, an avoidable hit that knocked arguably the Jaguars best player out of the game (after just coming back from injury, I might add). The people that were mad at him were likely Jaguars fans who didn’t want to see their starting quarterback go down.
Does that mean that they had a right to say nasty things to Al-Shaair? Not necessarily, and I don’t doubt that some fans went way over the top in their criticism. But Al-Shaair has no right to call them Islamophobic unless he has undeniable proof. To level such an accusation without any hard evidence to back it up is immature at best and intellectually dishonest at worst.
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