Texans defender Azeez Al-Shaair apologizes to Trevor Lawrence, but with a catch

Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was ejected from Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars after a late hit on quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The hit itself clearly crossed a line, and Lawrence laid motionless on the field for several minutes afterward.

Thankfully, Lawrence is fine. He mentioned as much in his own social media post, and was seen leaving the stadium with his wife.

The hit itself could get Al-Shaair suspended. He has a history of such things, after all. Al-Shaair was involved in an on-field altercation with Anthony Richardson earlier this season. He also launched himself at Bears QB Caleb Williams when the Texans played the Bears. Heck, he even has a complicated backstory with future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady. The league keeps receipts.

Azeez Al-Shaair apologizes to Trevor Lawrence with a catch

Some of the hate and vitriol aimed at Al-Shaair was rooted in racism, unfortunately. Al-Shaair was so clearly in the wrong in this one instance, that the worst of humanity used it as a reason to make an entire group feel unwanted. However, that doesn't let Al-Shaair himself off the hook.

On Monday morning, the Texans linebacker apologized to Lawrence, with a caveat.

Here's the thing with apologizes – the longer they are, the less sincere they typically come across. Al-Shaair makes some valid points about fans searching for a villain, and painting his entire reputation based on one bang-bang play. Football is reactionary, and once Al-Shaair made the choice to hit Lawrence, there was little turning back. That does not make him a bad person, or a false stereotype for an entire community.

Where he loses me – and most of his audience, unfortunately – is the use of quotations around "late and "unnecessary", as well as his claim that he did not see Lawrence was sliding until it was too late. A quick look at the replay shows Lawrence going into his slide well before Al-Shaair lowered his shoulder and helmet to make the hit.

The best use of Al-Shaair's time (and ours, frankly) would be to admit guilt, apologize, claim he'll be better moving forward and then accept whatever fine or suspension the NFL has coming. Unfortunately that was not the action Al-Shaair chose.