When Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair dove at Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence on Sunday and whacked the defenseless quarterback with the hard plastic brace on his elbow, it was one of the first times the NFL viewing public seemed uniform in agreement that a player should have been thrown out of the game.
The debate, for now, is whether Al-Shaair will receive a longer suspension than someone such as Danny Trevathan, a Chicago Bears linebacker who, in 2017, speared Davante Adams while Adams was in the grasp of another player and was forced to sit out a pair of games. My thought is that Al-Shaair shouldn’t play again in 2024. While a small chorus of people will suggest Lawrence was out of his mind for attempting a play like this, was late to slide and invited the contact because he was attempting to reach a first down—a tired players-only argument that can often be more ridiculous and overprotective than it needs to be—this feels like an obvious opportunity for the league to make an example out of a singular moment and regain control of the weaponization of equipment before it occurs in a stand-alone playoff game and invites anyone and everyone to get the wrong impression.
