Trevor Lawrence’s team-mate was fined for attacking Azeez Al-Shaair after an illegal tackle

The NFL has fined Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Evan Engram in retaliation for the player’s season-ending hit on quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Engram was fined $11,255 after attacking Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair in retaliation for his hit on Lawrence in the second quarter of Sunday’s game, according to NFL.com.

Engram was the first Jaguars player to follow Al-Shaair after the hit, as players from both teams scrambled to the plate.

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“It was a dirty game,” Engram told reporters after the game. “At that point, the instinct was right, it didn’t feel like a clean hit, so I had to stand up for my quarterback.

“I just knew it was wrong. It was a dirty game. You stood up for your young men. How is it going?”

While Engram was fined, Al-Shaair was suspended for three games without pay. The NFL said the quarterback’s involvement in the altercation played a role in coaching.

Lawrence suffered his second concussion of the year since the hit and was placed on injured reserve. The quarterback will undergo shoulder surgery due to an injury he first suffered in Week 9 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

TREVOR LAWRENCE PLACED ON INJURED RESERVE, ALMOST ENDED FOR HIS SEASON AFTER DANGEROUS HIT

Lawrence wrote in X Sunday night that he was “home and feeling better.”

After the game, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans criticized the Jaguars for “overreacting” after Al-Shaair’s hit on Lawrence, suggesting the quarterback was at fault.

“It wasn’t our guys. Their team overreacted, pushed our guy, pulled our guy to the sideline. So, that’s not necessary on that side. We’ve got to be better on the sideline, with both teams,” Ryans told reporters Sunday.

Players fight after Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (0) hits Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Trevor Lawrence with a late hit in the first half Dec. 1, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

“I think the only thing that can be done is that you have to look at all sides, and there is no need to overreact because I think the boy is getting hurt,” he said. “We’re not trying to hurt anyone on purpose. I think there’s an overreaction when someone gets hurt, but we just have to look at it from every angle.”

Jaguars coach Doug Pederson defended his team’s response to the hit and called Ryans’ response to the incident “amazing.”

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“We don’t intend to hurt anybody. We don’t intend to destroy jobs. We intend to win the football game and play hard by the rules. That’s our job. That’s how we train. That’s how we play. ,” Pederson said.

“If they ask or suggest that we follow someone, we don’t do that. Flat out, we don’t do that. That’s not the way I train. That’s not the way I will train these teams, these players. We will go out and do our jobs, play fast, play physically according to the rules.

Al-Shaair issued an apology and insisted that he did not intend to beat Lawrence illegally. The defender also spoke out against “racist and Islamophobic fans” after the public response to the incident.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) slides in front of Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (0) during the second quarter at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 1, 2024. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images)

But after Al-Shaair’s appeal for a three-match ban was announced to have been rejected, he sent a message of a different tone on Wednesday.

Al-Shaair posted a set of Instagram photos with the cryptic caption, “IF YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR WIFE, BE YOUR VIIIN! SEE YOU SOON.”

The four pictures he posted were of him entering the field, a pro-Palestinian cleat, a picture of Heath Ledger as The Joker and the quote, “There is beauty in being rejected, misunderstood, invisible, and not protected by people. It teaches you to trust Allah in everything.”

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