After Wednesday night’s social media post by Azeez Al-Shaair, it seems pretty obvious that his apology two days ago was not sincere. It likely was an attempt to appease the NFL, with hopes of a lesser penalty for his illegal hit on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
When it didn’t work, and the Texans linebacker’s three-game suspension was upheld on appeal, Al-Shaair did the absolute worst thing possible: He took to social media to express his displeasure.
Al-Shaair posted on X and Instagram, calling himself a villain.
He used four photos in the post, including Joaquin Phoenix’s DC Comics character, the Joker. He also had a photo of himself, a photo of the “Free Palestine” cleats in the colors of the Palestinian flag that he wore in support of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, along with a photo of a caption that read: “There is a beauty in being rejected, misunderstood, unseen and unprotected by people. It teaches you to relay on Allah for everything.”
Al-Shaair then wrote, “IF YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR VILLAIN, ILL BE YOUR VILLAIN! SEE YOU SOON. . .” He completed his message with emojis of a middle finger and a joker card.
The post, which remains on his feed more than two hours later, has not won him much sympathy on social media. But in his post two days ago, he already called fans against him as “racist and Islamophobic” and accused reporters of calling him “every name in the book.”
The Jaguars placed Lawrence on injured reserve Wednesday with a concussion, and he will undergo season-ending left shoulder surgery in the coming weeks. Al-Shaair can return to the Texans in Week 18.
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