The NFL announced a three-game suspension for Houston Texans player Azeez Al-Shaair on Tuesday. The 27-year-old linebacker will not receive his salary during the suspension, the league said.

The NFL cited multiple violations of its player safety rules after Al-Shaair delivered a violent hit to Trevor Lawrence's head area. The Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback was carted off the field and diagnosed with a concussion. Al-Shaair was disqualified from the game after the hit.

In a letter announcing Al-Shaair's suspension, NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan mentioned the linebacker's previous offenses for personal fouls and sportsmanship-related rules violations over the past few seasons. 

Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio met with members of the media on Tuesday and pushed back against the narratives concerning Al-Shaair that he believes have surfaced in the days since the controversial hit.

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Caserio pointed the finger at the NFL for painting an "unfair" picture of Al-Shaair. 

"It’s an unfortunate play and situation," Caserio said. "One of the biggest issues that we sort of take umbrage with, as a team and organizationally, is the picture that’s been painted of Azeez, quite frankly is unfair. I would say one of the biggest issues, and I probably speak for a lot of teams not only Houston Texans, but I think that’s all teams ask for is consistency from the league. I say in this situation quite frankly there’s no consistency at all relative to the level of discipline that’s been handed down."

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Caserio also suggested the league made comments about Al-Shaair without having a genuine understanding of the football player's personal character.

"We’re talking about some of the commentary that’s been made about his character, about the person that he is, about what his intentions are from people that quite frankly don’t know anything about Azeez Al-Shaair. For the league to make some of the commentary that they made about lack of sportsmanship, lack of coachability, lack of paying attention to the rules, quite frankly it’s embarrassing."

A portion of Runyan's letter delved into Al-Shaair's "lack of sportmanship" and suggested he had a "disregard for NFL playing rules."

"Your lack of sportsmanship and respect for the game of football and all those who play, coach, and enjoy watching it, is troubling and does not reflect the core values of the NFL… Your continued disregard for NFL playing rules puts the health and safety of both you and your opponents in jeopardy and will not be tolerated," Runyan wrote.

Nevertheless, Caserio made it clear that the organization he works for loves "everything about" the veteran linebacker.

"… What we take umbrage is the picture that’s been painted about Azeez, his intentions, who he is as a person, quite frankly it’s bulls---. It’s unfair to the individual, it’s unfair to the organization and we love everything about Azeez Al-Shaair."

Al-Shaair issued an apology to Lawrence on Monday.

"I’ve always played the game as hard as I could. Never with the intent to harm anyone and anybody that knows me knows that," Al-Shaair wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "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 competition! 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. Before the game we spoke and I told you how it was great to see you back out on the field and wished you well. I would never want to see any player hurt because of a hit I put on them, especially one that’s deemed ‘late’ or ‘unnecessary.’ To the rest of his teammates I can definitely understand you having his back and defending him in a situation like that."

Al-Shaair also took aim at members of the media who he believes framed him as a "villain."

"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 villain, 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. God knows my intentions and anyone who has ever been a teammate or friend of mine knows my heart."

It remains unclear whether Al-Shaair will file an appeal. But if the suspension is upheld, he won't be eligible to return to the Texans active roster until after Houston's Christmas Day game against the Ravens.

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With Buffalo trading Stefon Diggs, the Jets getting a healthy Aaron Rodgers and the Dolphins having a high-powered offense, many expected the Bills to take a step back.

However, with more than a month left in the season, they have already clinched their fifth-consecutive division title.

The Bills' dominant win in the snow against the San Francisco 49ers gave Buffalo the division title, and they now continue to fight for the one-seed.

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Well, with the division came a copy of the receipts.

The Bills social media team trolled those who doubted them in the preseason, posting a montage of experts predicting the Dolphins or Jets as the AFC East winner.

They also posted a video of talking heads saying the Bills would not come out on top.

One of those in the video was Rich Eisen, who admitted defeat.

"I’m gonna raise my hand and say my bad…" Eisen said on his show Monday. "For some reason, I saw the cheese of Stefon Diggs being a Texan and the back end of that defense being devoid of a lot of those bold, big-name guys that helped them have a Super Bowl window open with the generationally brilliant Josh Allen in his rookie contract and in the early years of his next contract…

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"I looked at all of that and I thought to myself, this is the time the Buffalo Bills can get got… It was wrong. Not just wrong, dead wrong. I mean, absolutely way off the mark awful wrong."

The Dolphins suffered from another Tua Tagovailia concussion that caused him to miss four games, and the Jets have had the biggest nightmare season possible.

As for the Bills, they sit one game back of the one-seed behind the Kansas City Chiefs, but with Buffalo winning their meeting earlier this season, the Bills do have the tiebreaker if they were to finish the season with the same record.

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A yearslong case surrounding a transgender female powerlifter reached the Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday where opening arguments were heard.

JayCee Cooper, sued USA Powerlifting in 2021 after being rejected from the women's team three years earlier. In the complaint, Cooper alleged the organization violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against people "having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one's biological maleness or femaleness."

A district court ruled last year that the organization discriminated against Cooper, which spurred a mandate that the federation "cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices" because of sexual orientation and gender identity.

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The federation appealed the decision; Cooper then cross-appealed, and on Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals decided the athletic league did not discriminate against the individual.

On Tuesday, the court asked Ansis Viksnins, USA Powerlifting's attorney, why banning Cooper from women's competition was not "discriminatory." 

Viksnins responded it was not "based on gender identity."

The court asked if the policy would be equal had it been based on race or religion, comparing Cooper's case to a hypothetical in which Catholics were to be better bowlers — but the comparison was shut down.

"There is no legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason why there could be separation based on religion or national origin or race, whereas there is a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for separating and treating transgender or women differently," Viksnins said.

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"The motive here was to separate biological males into a category where they are competing against other people who were born biologically male, that if I could point out my client separate competitors three ways by age, weight and sex. They do not care about gender identity. They don't care about sexual orientation."

The federation opened an "open" category in 2021 "to serve all gender identities," according to FOX 9 in Minnesota.

"Our goal at USAPL is to create rules and a framework that uphold the principles of fair play, not to exclude anyone," said Larry Maile, President of USAPL in a statement to the outlet. "Since science shows those who were born biologically male have a profound physical advantage over female-born athletes, our responsibility is to define legitimate categories to fairly place athletes within them."

A state court cited "increased risk of depression and suicide, lack of access to coaching and practice facilities, or other performance suppression common to transgender persons" as competitive disadvantages for transgender competitors, helping Cooper initially win the discrimination case.

According to Open Powerlifting, Cooper last competed at the 2022 AMP Classic Open Nationals in Texas and finished in third place out of three competitors in the division.

Cooper twice competed against a lone competitor — Rebecca Richnofsky — in the women's raw 198+ open category in 2019, winning both times. 

In the 2019 USPA National Championships, Cooper finished in fourth out of four competitors in that category.

Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

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