Vikings star CB addresses controversial Azeez Al-Shaair hit on Trevor Lawrence

Many members of the NFL community have said Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair gave Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence a concussion via a "dirty hit" during this past Sunday's game that Houston won, 23-20.

However, retired quarterback and living legend Tom Brady generated some headlines when he said during a Tuesday appearance on FS1's "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" program that the league should maybe "fine or penalize a quarterback for sliding late" on such plays. 

Minnesota Vikings cornerback Stephon Gilmore, a two-time first-team All-Pro selection, recently spoke with Ryan Morik of Fox News Digital about the incident that earned Al-Shaair a three-game suspension from the NFL. 

"You never want to see someone get hit like that," Gilmore said. "It’s kind of tricky sometimes with quarterbacks running, trying to get first downs and then sliding at the last second. I see both sides." 

Per Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing, former NFL head coach Rex Ryan explained earlier in the week that he felt quarterbacks "should be taught to dive at the ankles of the defender" rather than to slide feet first when completing scrambles. During a Tuesday appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said that "there should be some onus on the quarterback to slide early." 

According to Greg Rajan of the Houston Chronicle, Brady added during his interview that "quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves" and that the league could "penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize the defensive player for every single play that happens when there’s a hit on the quarterback."

Gilmore didn't go quite that far but also suggested that Al-Shaair was more unlucky than "dirty" regarding the Lawrence play. 

"It’s hard," Gilmore continued. "Some quarterbacks slide early. Sometimes you try to get a first down so they get aggressive. You don’t know when to pull back and go for the tackle, so it’s tricky." 

History shows that, for better or for worse, the NFL will continue to go out of the way to protect quarterbacks regardless of what fans, defensive players and even former stars think of such rules. After all, top-tier signal-callers are the faces of franchises and some of the league's highest-paid athletes. 

With that said, the NFL's competition committee theoretically could consider addressing feet-first slides during the upcoming offseason if data shows doing so could prevent quarterbacks from being knocked out of contests. Perhaps Brady will use whatever power he possesses as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders to push other owners to at least discuss the topic during winter and springtime meetings.