Officials missed a punch thrown by Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair on the Bears sideline during Sunday Night Football. Al-Shaair should have been ejected, and it remains to be seen whether he will be suspended for the Week 3 game against the Vikings.
Al-Shaair hit Bears quarterback Caleb Williams along the sideline as the rookie was headed out of bounds. Several Bears players took issue, rushing to their quarterback’s aid. Al-Shaair responded by punching running back Roschon Johnson in the facemask.
Texans coach DeMeco Ryans did not say whether he expects a suspension for Al-Shaair but came to his player’s defense.
“From my perspective, seeing Azeez, he had a big hit on quarterback, and everyone gets a little antsy when the quarterback gets hit on the sideline, but if the quarterback stays in[bounds], he’s going to get hit,” Ryans said, via video from the team on YouTube. “Now, I think everybody’s a little sensitive when there are big hits in the league. We’re still playing a physical game, and you’re going to get hit hard if you’re playing against us. That’s just how we operate here.
“What happened after that is Azeez is surrounded by a lot of their players and also some staff, and they’re surrounding him and you’ve got some people pushing Azeez. So we have to, as a game, we have to be better protecting all players involved, especially when something happens on the opposite sideline. We just have to be better, and we know from Azeez’s perspective, we can’t throw punches or anything like that. But overall, we just have to be able to protect players, and it goes both ways. You’ve guys surrounding one of our players, and ununiformed staff that’s surrounding him in that little mix up as well. That’s a problem, and we have to get it fixed.”
Al-Shaair had 10 tackles and a sack against the Bears.
