Sunday night’s matchup between the Chicago Bears and Houston Texans turned feisty in the third quarter, when Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair got away with punching Bears running back Roschon Johnson on the sideline.
Here’s what happened:
Al-Shaair delivered a physical hit on rookie quarterback Caleb Williams along the Bears sideline, which the refs decided not to penalize for unnecessary roughness. The real unnecessary roughness came after, as Al-Shaair got up and found himself surrounded by angry Bears.
Al-Shaair got up and immediately threw a punch at Johnson. Afterward, Darnell Wright came up to Al-Shaair, who answered his approach with a head-butt. Officials apparently missed both of these potential penalties.
If any NFL player throws a punch during the course of a game, they are automatically ejected. So Al-Shaair got lucky. Credit to the Bears sideline for not escalating what was clearly an emotional moment.
Al-Shaair came over to Houston from the rival Tennessee Titans this offseason. The tackling monster recorded a career-high 163 takedowns last year for the Titans, and was voted a team captain in his first season with the Texans.
