Azeez Al-Shaair insinuates he was subjected to smear campaign after nasty hit on Trevor Lawrence

Azeez Al-Shaair is back after serving a three-game suspension. He was suspended by the NFL in a strongly worded letter for a shoulder-to-head hit on Jacksonville Jaguars QB, Trevor Lawrence.

After the brutal hit, Lawrence lay motionless on the gridiron for some time while some of the Jags players attacked Al-Shaair for the illegal hit. The Houston Texans LB was soon escorted off the field amid boos and shouts from Jags fans.

However, his time away from the field is over and he will return for Week 18 against the Tennessee Titans. On Monday, he took to X (formerly Twitter) to pen a long note explaining things from his point of view and insinuated that the letter sent to him by the league was an attempt to tarnish his character.

"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," Al-Shaair wrote in a post.

He was hinting at the meeting that he had with Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, where he clearly stated that the wording of the letter was "careless" and "not a reflection of my character or career."

Azeez Al-Shaair added that the time away from football had given him the opportunity to introspect and watch the video of the hit and was embarrassed by it.

"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."

DeMeco Ryans and Joe Thomas asked NFL to look into rules after Azeez Al-Shaair incident

Soon after the hit and Azeez Al-Shaair's suspension, several ex-players lodged a complaint to the NFL. Joe Thomas took to X to urge the league to remove the weaponized QB slide.

"But the NFL needs to get the “weaponized quarterback slide” out of the game. As dangerous as hits on a quarterback are when the quarterback chooses to slide, we need to stop allowing quarterbacks to fake slide or late slide in order to gain yardage and confuse the defenders on if the quarterback is sliding or not."

HC DeMeco Ryans came out in support of his player:

“Yes, he plays it fast. He plays it physical. Sometimes that physical nature gets misunderstood in today’s game.”

QB slides are banned in college sports, which came after a controversial Kenny Pickett fake-slide TD in 2021.

It will be interesting to see if the NFL elects to do the same. If they do, hits like Azeez Al-Shaair's on Trevor Lawrence could become a rarer event.