NFL Threatened to Ban Azeez Al-Shaair Over Pro-Palestinian Eye Black Message
The Houston Texans linebacker has already been fined nearly $24,000 for using his eye black to honor Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Black News 
Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has never been a stranger to NFL discipline. But his latest run-in with the league has nothing to do with a hard hit or an on-field altercation.
Instead, Al-Shaair is facing scrutiny for using his eye black to draw attention to the conflict in Gaza.
The 29-year-old linebacker was fined $11,953 for wearing eye black that read “stop the genocide” during Houston’s Jan. 12 playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was fined another $11,941 after Week 1 this season for writing “Hind Rajab,” the name of a 4-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza.
During the Texans’ Week 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Al-Shaair wrote the name of another slain Palestinian girl, Wafaa Akila, on his eye black. According to The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones, a league official spotted the message and told Al-Shaair he would have to remove it or risk being barred from continuing the game.
Al-Shaair has made clear that he’s willing to accept fines to get his message across. But losing playing time is apparently where he draws the line.
“At the end of the day, it’s bigger than me,” Al-Shaair said after Week 1, according to Newsweek. “The things that are going on make people uncomfortable, imagine how those people feel. I think that’s the biggest thing. I have no affiliation, no connection to these people other than the fact that I’m a human being.
“If you have a heart and you’re a human being you can see what’s going on in the world and you check yourself real quick. Even when I’m walking off this field, that’s the type of stuff that goes through my head that I have to check myself when I’m sitting here crying about football when there’s people dying every single day.”
