Bill Romanowski says the hit Azeez Al-Shaair laid on Trevor Lawrence over the weekend was “abso-fricken-lutely” a dirty one … but in true Romo fashion, he tells TMZ Sports he “loved” it!!!

The play unfolded in the second quarter of the Texans’ tilt with the Jaguars on Sunday … as Jacksonville’s star quarterback was running for a first down.

Lawrence sprinted about 10 yards, and when he saw Al-Shaair closing in, he started to slide. But the Texans linebacker didn’t hit the brakes — and plowed right through the former Clemson signal-caller’s head.

The play resulted in a bad injury for Lawrence, a huge brawl, and, on Tuesday, a three-game suspension for Al-Shaair.

Romanowski told us just after the NFL hit the Houston tackler with the ban that he really felt for Al-Shaair, noting the situation was a bang-bang, hard-to-avoid one.

But, he did relent it was “dirty.”

Of course, as an inside linebacker who gained a reputation over the years for bending the on-field rules, he added, “I loved it!!!”

“But,” he said, “it was dirty.”

Al-Shaair will have the opportunity to appeal his suspension — and given the way Texans general manager Nick Caserio slammed the NFL for its ruling, it seems that’ll be likely.

Either way, though, Romanowski said his advice to Al-Shaair from here would be to not let off the gas going forward … but just “control it a little bit” better.

“The last thing you want to do is take that aggression away from your defense,” he said. “Because he’s a tone-setter. That’s what he is. You don’t want to take that away.”