{"id":1002287,"date":"2026-09-16T10:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1002287\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:33:15","slug":"texans-azeez-al-shaair-fined-for-unauthorized-pro-palestine-eye-black-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1002287\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans&#8217; Azeez Al-Shaair fined for &#8216;unauthorized&#8217; pro Palestine eye black message"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/tag\/houston-texans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Houston Texans<\/a> linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has never been shy about speaking out on matters that are important to him, and that was once again the case during the team\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/category\/nfl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NFL<\/a> season opener against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/tag\/buffalo-bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> at Highmark Stadium. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the game, four Texans players were fined by the league, including Al-Shaair whose fine came because of an \u201cunauthorized message\u201d written on his eye black. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AaronWilson_NFL\/status\/2100020327954715063\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Al-Shaair was fined $11,492 for his eye black<\/a>, which read, \u201cHind Rajab,\u201d according to team insider Aaron Wilson. Hind Rajab was a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/newhttps:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-68261286s\/world-middle-east-68261286\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">killed after being shot multiple times by the Israeli military<\/a>, along with six family members in Gaza city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is a heartbreaking story that received global attention, but the NFL strictly prohibits any personal, political, or memorial messages from being written on players\u2019 eye black or game-day gear. Any unauthorized message results in an immediate fine. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/7-biggest-takeaways-from-nfl-week-1-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">7 biggest NFL takeaways from Week 1 of 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Azeez Al-Shaair\u2019s \u2018Unauthorized\u2019 Message<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Azeez Al-Shaair wearing eye black with Hind Rajabs name on it. <\/p>\n<p>Hind Rajab was an innocent five year old Palestinian child who was killed after Israeli occupation forces fired more than 300 bullets into her family\u2019s car.<\/p>\n<p>Azeez Al-Shaair continues to be on the right side of\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LfgTxbraxM\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/LfgTxbraxM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sk \ud83e\udd8d (@CryLawson) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CryLawson\/status\/2099337191696527712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">September 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The killing of Hind Rajab took place on January 29, 2024, after audio recordings revealed the five-year-oold calling for help. The Israeli military confirmed soldiers fired hundreds of bullets into her family vehicle and are conducting an internat criminal investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is not the first time that Al-Shaair, who is a devote Muslim and has been outspoken about using his platform to speak out about injustice, has been fined for unauthorized messages on his eye black.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Wilson nots on X, the linebacker was previously <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AaronWilson_NFL\/status\/2100020327954715063?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">fined $11,593 for writing \u201cStop The Genocide\u201d on his eye black<\/a> against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL Playoffs. He had planned to share the message during the following game against the New England Patriots, but was told he would be unable to play if it was not removed. Al-Shaair removed the eye block after wearing it on the field during pregame drills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ll have to see if Al-Shaair continues to share personal messages moving forward this season or whether he will comply with the NFL rules. Up next for the Texans is a Week 2 showdown against the Cincinnati Bengals at NRG Stadium on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/subscribe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Enjoy free coverage of the top news &amp; trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter<\/a> \u2014<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has never been shy about speaking out on matters that are important to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1002288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[15930,7,221,253,2368,6,69511,222],"class_list":["post-1002287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-azeez-al-shaair","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-fines","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117280270199770894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1002288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}