Shannon Sharpe sure chose an odd way to call out what he believed were hypocritical statements by Tom Brady.
The two-time Super Bowl champion took issue with Brady’s take on Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair’s vicious hit to Trevor Lawrence’s head on Sunday, which left the Jaguars quarterback concussed.
Lawrence has since been placed on injured reserve and is out for the remainder of the season.
Al-Shaair, who has a history of dirty hits, has been suspended three games by the NFL.
Contrary to many others, Brady — who is currently Fox Sports’ lead NFL analyst — seemed to place the blame for the incident on Lawrence for putting himself at risk by choosing to run the ball, saying that “defensive players have to be aggressive.”
“The quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves,” Brady said during an appearance on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd last week. “When you run, you put yourself in a lot of danger. And when you do that, I don’t think the onus of protecting an offensive quarterback who’s running should be on an offensive player. I don’t think that’s really fair to the defense.”
Sharpe was having none of it on his “Nightcap” show Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson — especially with it coming from the seven-time Super Bowl champion whose career played a role in how well NFL rules now protect quarterbacks.
“Tom Brady is the wrong messenger because they had a rule changed,” Sharpe said. “Does he not know ‘The Brady Rule’ was insтιтuted to protect him? I get it; I get what he’s saying, Ocho, but he’s the wrong messenger. Because a lot of these rules that they put in place to protect the quarterback, he benefitted from.
“It’s kind of like what we see with a lot of Hispanics when they talk about ‘Yeah, deport, deport, deport.’ When they got over here, we see it. We know how they got over here. See, it’s easy to say ex post facto. ‘Well, I’m here now. I don’t give a damn. Close it — don’t let nobody else over.’ Tom Brady said, ‘Well, hell, I ain’t got to take no more hits; punish the quarterback.’ Really, bro? Really? Really?
Al-Shaair apologized to Lawrence in a lengthy post on Monday.
“My goal is to hit you as hard as I can then I pray you’re still able to get up and play the next play. And when the game is over go home to your family unharmed because it’s not personal it’s just compeтιтion!” he wrote.
Adding: “We both are trying to do the same thing which is provide for our families! I genuinely didn’t see him sliding until it was too late. And it all happens in the blink of an eye. To Trevor I genuinely apologize to you for what ended up happening.”
Al-Shaair, however, didn’t hold back on the media and his critics.
““To the rest of the people who I’ve been called every single name in the book from reporters with their hands ready for a story to find their villan [sic], to racist and Islamophobic fans and people, you don’t know my heart nor my character which I don’t need to prove to any of you,” he wrote.
The Jaguars are 2-10 and face the 3-9 тιтans on Sunday.