As quite literally every person on the planet expected, the NFL suspended Azeez Al-Shaair on Tuesday. After Al-Shaair laid a dirty hit on Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence – one that very obviously concussed him – during last Sunday's win, the only debate was how many games he'd be out for.
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The Texans got their answer when the league announced, in no uncertain terms, that they were suspending him for the next three games. It's a tough blow for a defense that has to play the Dolphins, Chiefs, and Ravens without a team captain, but the bigger issue – at least to the Texans' front office – was the lack of clarity on the league's reasoning.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Texans GM Nick Caserio went full torched-earth on the league office for what he views as a lack of consistency when it comes to ejections and suspensions.
Nick Caserio didn't hold back on his criticism of NFL after Azeez Al-Shaair suspension
"I probably speak for a lot of teams, not only the Houston Texans, but I think all teams ask for is consistency from the league," Caserio said. "And I'd say in this situation, quite frankly, there's no consistency at all, relative to the level of discipline that's been handed down. When you go back, let's look at this season: you've had multiple situations, multiple examples. Two really good players – [Brian] Branch ejected against Green Bay, plays the next week against us. Derwin [James] ejected, got suspended for one game ..."
"For the league to make some of the comments that they made about lack of sportsmanship, lack of coachability, lack of paying attention to the rules, quite frankly, it's embarassing. Talk about a player who's never been suspended, never been ejected. So now we're saying he's going to be suspended for three games? It is what it is, I think the big thing from out standpoint, and all teams want some level of consistency. We've talked to the league, we don't have a good explanation. DeMeco talked to the league yesterday. It is what it is."
Caserio probably has a point about the lack of clarity from the league office – that certainly isn't a new complaint – but this comes across way more as the GM following the company line. No one's doubting Al-Shaair's philanthropy, but it's hard to watch those clips circling the internet of all his dirty hits and then be like, "well that's okay because he works with Make-A-Wish!"
A team's GM doesn't like that the NFL suspended its player for a lot of games. In other news, water is still wet.