Houston Texans captain Azeez Al-Shaair receiving a three-game suspension is a huge storyline coming out of the NFL’s Week 13 roster following his hit on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who was trying to slide.
Legendary quarterback and current Fox broadcaster Tom Brady gave his opinion on the matter during an appearance on ‘The Herd with Colin Cowherd’, admitting to having ‘mixed emotions’ over the hit that led to a huge skirmish and Al-Shaair’s immediate expulsion.
Lawrence was ruled out for the remainder of the match due to concussion after his head hit the grass.
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Tom Brady walks the field before the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on November 24, 2024 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
“I’ll start by saying I have mixed feelings about it too,” Brady said. “I remember we were playing Buffalo in 2001 and I was sliding late. Nate Clements was the corner for the Bills, and he came out of the secondary and absolutely crushed me. My helmet flew off. I came back and ran away . in the huddle, and I had a bunch of teammates come up to me the next day and say, ‘Dude, these guys are coming. And if you’re going to slide, you better get down guys come to you to fetch.’
“It was a great learning experience for me because I realized that when I run out of money, things move a lot faster for me. The defense tries to be aggressive, and over time, the N.F.L has obviously done a lot of things to protect players – player health and safety and so on and so forth.”
One of the most important rules is hits to the head and neck area, which the NFL has cracked down on in recent seasons. Hitting the quarterback while he is sliding is also something the defense must pay attention to every week.
In Al-Shaair’s case, the NFL ruled he was wrong for hitting Lawrence, saying in its suspension reasoning that he could have changed his hit at that time.
Even though Brady has been on the receiving end of such hits, he wondered if the way the NFL has evolved, in this case with quarterbacks hitting more often than ever in the history of the game, that the offense here can’t be without fault.
“The one aspect that I think is really challenging, especially for Trevor Lawrence, no one wants to see anyone get hurt,” Brady said. “But it’s also the reality of a very physical sport that we play. Defensive players have to be aggressive – that’s their nature. I try to be aggressive on offense, we try to block aggressively. And at the same time the defense tries to attack aggressively. to take.
December 1, 2024; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (0) is stopped by Houston Texans linebacker Henry To’oTo’o (39) after being ejected against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second quarter at EverBank Stadium. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)
“There’s an aspect to me where I think the quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves. I see Josh Allen running it a lot, I see Lamar Jackson running it a lot, and it’s a great skill set to have. wish I had those skills. When you run you put yourself in a lot of danger. When you do that, I don’t think the responsibility of protecting an offensive quarterback who is running should fall to a defensive player. I don’t think that’s real. fair for a defense.”
Brady said he doesn’t like the “dirty player” label used by fans against Al-Shaair, especially since the league cited his past transgressions on the football field as the reason for the three games.
“I don’t like that at all,” Brady said of the dirty player label. “Maybe they’ll fine or penalize a quarterback if he’s late. They’ll say, ‘Look, if we don’t want these hits to happen, we need to penalize the offense and the defense instead of just penalizing the defensive player for every single hit.’ play for a hit that happens on a quarterback.
Brady knows that the pace of play in the NFL can be lightning fast, requiring quick decision-making to execute plays on both sides of the ball.
Tom Brady gave his opinion on Azeez Al-Shaair’s hit on Trevor Lawrence and the subsequent suspension. (PROPOSE)
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But sometimes those decisions don’t line up well, resulting in what happened Sunday afternoon in Duval County, where Al-Shaair’s decision to go full speed into the sliding Lawrence will sideline him until Week 17.
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