Show Me The Money

Apparently, one can put a price on activism and, for Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, that price is a tad under $12,000.

Al-Shaair reportedly was fined $11,593 by the NFL for wearing the message “stop the genocide” on his eye black either during or after the playoff game with the Steelers last week.

I tuned in to Sunday’s Houston-New England playoff contest in part to see if Al-Shaair was willing to invest more in spreading his political message. It was his last chance this season because the Patriots won handily in a game notable for offensive ineptitude on both sides. So long, Texans.

Interceptions and fumbles were the plays of the day in this 28-16 Patriots win.

As for Al-Shaair, I watched closely and there was one closeup shot during the broadcast, shortly after he had recovered a fumble, when I saw no political message on the black tape under his eyes. In fact, there were no messages at all, not even Happy Easter!

Yet, I saw online a report from a Houston television station that Al-Shaair sported his eye black message during the pregame activities. A confused New York Times story reported that, as I have noted, Al-Shaair had no eye black message when shown during the game, but may have had it pregame and perhaps during the game that we didn’t notice.

We are left to speculate why no very public eye black messages this time?

Yes, $11,593 would be considerable coin to me. But, if I were scheduled to make a reported $11 million in salary next year, as Al-Shaair is, I think if I felt so strongly about something, I’d keep paying the fine.

Understand, fining a guy making $11 million $11,593 is roughly equivalent to fining a guy making $50,000 a year a tad under $53 – that’s dollars, not hundreds or thousands of dollars.

I wonder how all those rabid types on social media, spouting about the initial fine, feel about their hero seemingly cheaping out?

I guess money does talk, or at least hits the mute button.