BREAKING
NFL player Azeez Al-Shaair was fined more than $11,000 for wearing the name of a Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces on his face markings last weekend, a league spokesman said Wednesday.
Linebacker Al-Shaair had the words “Hind Rajab” written on his eye black — a sticker or paint frequently used by American football players to reduce glare — for the Houston Texans’ clash with the Buffalo Bills.
Long-standing NFL rules forbid personal messages of any kind, including political statements, to be displayed during game days.
He was also fined last season for a similar offence for a personal message, which read “Stop The Genocide.”
Al-Shaair, 29, from Florida, is a practising Muslim who has frequently spoken on the situation in Gaza.
“I feel like it’s something that’s trying to be almost silenced,” Al-Shaair told the Houston Chronicle in 2024.
Dallas Mavericks basketball star Kyrie Irving swiftly spoke out in support of Al-Shaair, offering to personally pay the footballer’s fine. “I’ll take care of his fine,” Irving posted on social media.
“Like Muhammad Ali and other athletes of conscience before him, Azeez Al-Shaair is using his platform to stand up for justice. We applaud him and encourage others to follow suit in standing up for human rights, from Gaza to Sudan and elsewhere,” CAIR-Houston Director of Operations Imran Ghani said.
“The NFL has no problem with coaches wearing pins developed for genocide supporter Robert Kraft’s “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign, and it should have no problem with an NFL player mentioning the name of a girl killed in that genocide,” Ghani added.
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