Azeez Al-Shaair has released a statement ahead of his return to the NFL ahead of the regular season finale, admitting his embarrassment over his suspension his late hit on Trevor Lawrence.
Al-Shaair sparked a mass brawl following his late hit in the Texans 23-20 win over the Jaguars earlier this month, flying into Lawrence elbow first despite the opposing signal caller sliding to give himself up on the play – with defensive players taught to let quarterback’s slide.
Multiple Jaguars players had ran over to Al-Shaair in retaliation with the linebacker seen taking off his helmet and pointing at players, seemingly taking little accountability. He later posted a bizarre message on social media, uploading a picture of Joaquin Phoenix’ Joker and claiming to be the ‘villain’.
With Al-Shaair set to make his comeback to the field this week, it would appear that he’s been advised that he must apologize, posting a lengthy 700-word statement, going into detail on the incident and how he plans to improve as well as the necessary steps taken to returning to play.
He had said: “I’ve learned so much from this entire experience. Seeing myself on video letting my emotions get the best of me to the point where I completely lost it was an embarrassing and eye-opening moment for me. I’ve had to earn everything in my life. I never want to allow anyone to get me to a point where I jeopardize everything that I’ve worked at my life to obtain. That was not the way I wanted to represent myself or my family, and I will continue to learn and grow from that moment.
During my suspension, I was able to meet with Commissioner Goodell, Troy Vincent, Jon Runyon among others to meet for the first time and express the way I felt about how I was characterized in the letter sent out from the NFL. I gave a ton of respect for those at the league office and the responsability they have to uphold for player safety. Without going into detail, the meeting we had was productive and gave me hope for moving forward and playing the game that I love with continued best intentions, while also not having my character and integrity unjustifiably smeared.
In that conversation man-to-man I owned and acknowledged that my actions following my ejection were careless, and in that moment, I didn’t think about the responsibility I have been blessed with to represent the shield. I also stated that the letter, and specifically the language used in the letter, was equally as careless and conveyed that the context of the words used were not a reflection of my character, nor my career, as I have not been warned multiple times for my play on the field.”
The Texans game this weekend will essentially be a throwaway game for the team having already won their division and sealing their fate as the fourth seed, with them set to face their divisional rival Tennessee Titans.
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