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When Houston Texans GM Nick Caserio boldly declared that the NFL should be “embarrassed” for accusing linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair of a “lack of sportsmanship, lack of coachability, lack of paying attention to the rules” for his brutal, concussion-causing late hit on Trevor Lawrence, it upset more than a few fans around the NFL, including ESPN's flagship broadcaster, Stephen A. Smith.
Addressing the news that Al-Shaair was being suspended for three games with a five-digit fine attached on First Take, Smith unloaded the chamber on Caserio, accusing him of being the “embarrassment” for how he has done his job.
“The first thing I thought about when the name Nick Caserio was how embarrassing his tenure was before he lucked up and got Demeco Ryans and drafted CJ Stroud. Prior to that, one would argue that his tenure there was embarrassing and disgraceful with the coaches he kept pushing in and out the door and all this other stuff. I got on national television talking about if you're a black man looking for a head coaching job, don't talk to that man. I was nervous for Demeco Ryans, I said he's just using you for a year than he's going to kick you out the door,” Smith declared.
“You're going to go in front of the reporters knowing your player was warned 7 times. So you're asking for consistency, well how about the word appreciation, the fact they didn't suspend him before. Are you saying they should've suspended him earlier? Because basically, what you're doing is maligning and excoriating the league for finally doing what it should've done earlier. Now, if the man didn't do anything, he didn't commit any violations prior to that, that was different.”
Different it would be but in Smith's opinion, the blame doesn't just fall on Al-Shaair's shoulders. No, he believes this is an organizational issue, with Caserio's comments causing more harm than good.
Stephen A. Smith demands the Texans GM sit this one out
Continuing his rant on the Al-Shaair situation and Caserio adding fire to the flames, Smith boldly declared that the team's GM should sit this one out, as he's not only embarrassing himself but the organization as a whole.
“For Nick Caserio to get up there and to speak like that, if I'm the league office I'd call him just to say thank you, next time I'll just suspend him. I'll just suspend your d**n players without anything,” Smith said. “I won't even wait, your actually maligning us for giving you the benefit of the doubt and repeatedly warning him, so he'd ultimately stop. That's what you're getting on us about, that's what you're saying is embarrassing! That's what you're saying is BS, that we were kind enough to warn you instead of suspending him already when we could've suspended you a couple of other times. Sit your a** down.”
On one hand, some may argue that Caserios is in the right for standing up for his player, as that is what an NFL GM is supposed to do. But when you consider the optics around the situation, with Lawrence landing on (probably) season-ending IR with a combination concussion/shoulder injury, going to bat for a player with a history of dirty hits, well, that's going to irritate fans of the other 31 teams, including Stephen A. who knows a thing or two about unloading on folks for having a silly opinion.
