HOUSTON – Texans All-Pro corner Derek Stingley Jr. paid a price for his facemask penalty Monday night.
He was fined $11,593 for the infraction, knocking off the helmet of Seattle Seahawks star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Recommended Videos
The facemask set off an altercation on the Texans’ bench area with Smith-Njigba shoved by linebacker Christian Harris. Only Stingley was fined, though, and linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair wasn’t fined for his unnecessary roughness penalty during which he tackled Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold out of bounds and put his weight on him as he drove him into the ground. Al-Shaair took issue with the penalty, saying the whistle never blew before the tackle and he couldn’t see where he was in relation to the sideline.
Smith-Njigba, who caught eight passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, was fined $14,491 for using a prop for a celebration as he dunked the football over the crossbar after catching an 11-yard scoring pass in coverage against Stingley.
Al-Shaair’s point is that Darnold should be treated as a runner, not a quarterback, by rule on that play. Especially since the whistle didn’t blow, ending the play.
“I pushed off of the receiver to run into the tackle, he lowers his shoulder, we both just kinda hit each other, I’m driving him, he’s trying to drive his legs, still no whistle, but my head is like in his chest, so I don’t know really where I’m at on the field,” Al-Shaair said. “There’s still no whistle. It never blew the whistle until after I dropped him on the ground and then they were like, ‘That’s a flag because you hit him on the ground. Like, ‘Well, you didn’t blow the whistle and he’s a runner.’ I played against Sam multiple times.
“We have a pretty good football relationship, just conversation. Even after it happened, it’s like, ‘Bro.’ I was like, ‘Wow, I know you’re just playing football, like it was weird and we both just kinda just chopped it up, talked about it and kinda moved on. But yeah, I mean it was it was awkward.”
Al-Shaair’s larger point is that the referees need to use their whistles when the play is over.
He emphasized the same thing happened with defensive tackle Tim Settle Jr.’s late-game penalty for diving onto the pile.
“You’re talking to the refs about it, they’re like, ‘Yeah, I know there wasn’t wasn’t a whistle blown, but you gotta see where you are on the field,’” Al-Shaair said. “I’m like, ‘Well if I’m out of bounds, blow the whistle.’ That’s the whole point of the play. Even the play with Tim at the end of the game, they never blew the whistle.
“So Tim is driving the pile and he gets flagged for unnecessary roughness, but you never blew the whistle. So, it’s just confusing because it happened a whole bunch today. Weird. Tim, I feel bad. Obviously, he’s beating himself up about it. But it’s like we’re trying to get the ball back for the offense and they’re driving him forward, we’re trying to drive him back. They never blew the whistle. It was genuinely the weirdest thing.”
Al-Shaair suggested that the league wanting to protect quarterbacks given the popularity and importance of the position from a financial standpoint was a factor in how the game is officiated.
“It’s just this league,” he said. “Obviously, quarterbacks get paid a lot of money. He’s made a lot of plays to get himself in position to make a lot of money. It’s insane. I mean, he dropped his shoulder, I hit him. Like when me and him talked about it, it was cool.
“Obviously, it’s just football. He understands it, I understand that. But you know, when they’re paying him $50 million dollars or whatever he’s getting, that’s just how it’s gonna be.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com