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Texans Linebacker Gets Away With Obvious Punch In Ugly Sideline Scrum vs. Bears

Kristen Wong

Al-Shaair throws a punch on the sideline during 'Sunday Night Football.'
Al-Shaair throws a punch on the sideline during 'Sunday Night Football.' / Screengrab on Twitter/ @jasrifootball
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The Chicago Bears-Houston Texans matchup on Sunday Night Football appeared to get ugly during a tense moment in the third quarter.

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams scampered toward the sideline on a first down and seemed to be giving himself up when Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair rammed into him. Williams took the hard hit and fell out of bounds on the ground near his Bears teammates, who immediately mobbed Al-Shaair.

During the scuffle, Al-Shaair threw a blatant punch at Bears running back Roschon Johnson, who wasn’t even playing in the game. Johnson didn’t retaliate but did raise his hands wondering why the referees didn’t throw a flag.

Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico noted on the broadcast that because the referees presumably didn’t see the punch and didn’t throw a flag, the play wasn’t reviewable by New York.

However, replays of the incident show just how obvious the punch was and how lucky Al-Shaair was to not get ejected from the game. 

Fortunately for the Texans' defensive captain, referees seemed not to notice his antics on the sideline.

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Kristen Wong

KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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