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Oh, those whiny Houston Texans. Azeez Al-Shaair got a three-game suspension for his almost universally denounced dirty hit on Trevor Lawrence, but the Texans GM apparently thought Al-Shaair got treated unfairly. What? Now Joe Mixon took a scorched-earth stance on Al-Shaair’s suspension after posting a viral Jon Runyan clip on X.
“Is this not the same person that just suspended agent 0? Dude had no integrity for the game … Does anybody else not see the hypocrisy in this … WHAT ARE WE DOING!?!?”
Al-Shaair, a linebacker, delivered a blow to Lawrence's head as the Jaguars quarterback was sliding, knocking him out of the game. The hit touched off a scuffle and resulted in Al-Shaair's ejection.
Maybe Mixon doesn’t think Al-Shaair’s hit looked all that bad. Slap on wrists and let him go, perhaps.
Texans RB Joe Mixon has backing from coach
DeMeco Ryans had an opportunity to come down hard on the hit — at least as hard as Al-Shaair’s blow. But Ryans decided to take the low road, according to a post on X by Aaron Wilson via cbssports.com.
“With the entire Azeez situation, we stand behind Azeez,” Ryans said. “It's two-fold. A lot of quarterbacks in this day and age, they try to take advantage of the rule or they slide late and they try to get an extra yard. You're a defender, a lot of onus is on the defender. Whether it's on the sideline or whether it's on the quarterback, you don't (know) what a guy is thinking. You don't know if a guy is staying up and he's continuing to run. You don't know, and then you get a late slide and you hit the guy.”
Of course, Ryans ignored the fairly obvious view that Al-Shaair led with his forearm. So if the quarterback is trying to get an extra yard, the defender now has carte blanche to lead with what looked like a vicious forearm?
“It's unfortunate that Trevor got hurt,” Ryans continued. “I hope Trevor is okay.”
Oh, that’s nice. Ryans said he’s sorry the other team’s player got hurt. But his guy is basically innocent. So Lawrence deserved what he got? Let’s see what else Ryans had to say.
“But it's also, when you're sliding, you have to get down,” Ryans said.
Lawrence’s fault, huh? Forearms up!
“Getting out of bounds or getting down, that rule is there to protect the quarterbacks,” Ryans said. “We want our quarterbacks to be safe in the league. So we just have to be safe and when we're sliding, make sure we're keeping our heads down.”
Do Texans think Trevor Lawrence is at fault for how he slid?
Wait. So now Lawrence should have kept his head down? How does a guy get his head out of the way of that forearm, coach?
“The entire thing, Azeez hits the guy, but their sideline overreacts and it turns into a melee,” Ryans said. “But it wasn't our guys. Their team overreacted, dragging our guy, pushed our guy to the sideline. So, that's uncalled for on that side.”
Those could be costly words. Let’s see how the Texans react if C.J. Stroud gets hit in the same manner. According to Ryans, we should expect the entire Texans sideline to remain calm. No overreactions. Right?
This is an embarrassing look for the entire Texans’ organization. Al-Shaair should apologize and Ryans should apologize. They can still question the suspension, and appeal it. But to make it look like the blame falls to Lawrence is a low blow on the same level as Al-Shaair.
