The Chicago Bears-Houston Texans matchup on Sunday Night Football appeared to get ugly during a tense moment in the third quarter.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams scampered toward the sideline on a first down and seemed to be giving himself up when Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair rammed into him. Williams took the hard hit and fell out of bounds on the ground near his Bears teammates, who immediately mobbed Al-Shaair.
During the scuffle, Al-Shaair threw a blatant punch at Bears running back Roschon Johnson, who wasn’t even playing in the game. Johnson didn’t retaliate but did raise his hands wondering why the referees didn’t throw a flag.
Punching a guy wearing a mask is silly but we keep on pic.twitter.com/5n20HRNNmB
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) September 16, 2024
Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico noted on the broadcast that because the referees presumably didn’t see the punch and didn’t throw a flag, the play wasn’t reviewable by New York.
However, replays of the incident show just how obvious the punch was and how lucky Al-Shaair was to not get ejected from the game.
no flag was thrown pic.twitter.com/GcrCXoVidg
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 16, 2024
Azeez Al-Shaair throws a punch and doesn’t even get flagged #CHIvsHOU pic.twitter.com/vnxOk2YC2e
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) September 16, 2024
Punching a facemask: forever the dumbest thing to ever do. pic.twitter.com/ZTMSdkZIOF
— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) September 16, 2024
Staggeringly stupid that NY can't buzz down and toss a guy we're watching punch somebody
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) September 16, 2024
Texans throw a punch
— Steve Palazzolo (@StevePalazzolo_) September 16, 2024
New York: "Sorry, our hands are tied. There was no flag thrown on the play"
Clean hit. But at least one ref should've seen that punch.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) September 16, 2024
Fortunately for the Texans' defensive captain, referees seemed not to notice his antics on the sideline.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Texans Linebacker Gets Away With Obvious Punch In Ugly Sideline Scrum vs. Bears.
