Last weekend, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence suffered a severe concussion in the second quarter that forced him to miss the remainder of the game against the Houston Texans.
Texans linebacker Azeez Al Shaair, who neutralized Lawrence, was immediately ejected from the game and suspended by the NFL for the next three games without pay.
Jason Whitlock and coach Jason Brown discuss the incident.
Jason initially agreed with the NFL's decision to suspend Al Sha'air, but Brown may have convinced him to soften his stance.
“When are we going to start adding quarterbacks to the 22 players wearing pads on the football field? Last I checked, everyone was wearing pads and helmets. Unprotected players. “When a quarterback leaves the pocket, he's now a running back,” Brown argued, adding that the only reason these rules are in place is because the price of quarterbacks is so high. Ta.
“This is not the way we all signed up to play the game. Let's make the quarterback a part of the game. Take the slide out of the football. We're in a no-win situation on defense,” he added. , Lawrence pointed out that he had chosen to slide too much without going beyond the frame, and now Al Sha'ir was being unfairly penalized for just playing defense.
In retrospect, Jason largely agrees with Brown's position.
“I understand that the NFL pays quarterbacks $40 million, $50 million, $60 million a year, but they want to spend that $50 million investment sitting on the sideline in concussion protocol. No. I get that, but when the players who make the most money take the least amount of risk, that's the worst recipe for disharmony in the locker room,” Jason says.
“You're 1000% right — 'Hey, we all signed up to play tackle football. Some players get paid 50 million because of their position, and I'm a linebacker. He'll get paid 10 million and he'll have to take less risks than me,'' he says, imagining what many players are thinking. “That doesn't make sense.”
However, Jason also understands that al-Sha'ir has a reputation for being unnecessarily violent. He plays a video montage of the linebacker's most eyebrow-raising plays. This includes punching another player in the head or punching a player who is already several steps out of bounds.
When it comes to banning quarterbacks from sliding, Jason said Brown is on “solid ground,” but the punishment of Azeez Al Shaair for the illegal hit on Trevor Lawrence is “more important than a single reckless play.” “It's a little deeper,” he said.
“This Aziz Al Sha'ir is new [Vontaze] Burfict,” he says.
If you want to hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.
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