October 25, 2011

Ndamukong Suh is His Own Worst Enemy

By - Kris Fletcher

Following Sunday's game in Detroit, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White said that he lost respect for Ndamukong Suh because Suh taunted quarterback Matt Ryan while he lay injured on the field.

Yesterday, the defensive tackle said he doesn't particularly care if White respects him or not.

"Do I need Rodney White's respect? No, I don't." Suh said.

Photo by: Gregory Shamus
Yes, you saw that correctly. He called Roddy White, "Rodney." I'm not really sure if Suh misspoke, doesn't actually know White's first name, or if he just wanted to take a subtle dig at White by pretending not to know his name, but it was funny regardless.

As far as the allegations that he and teammate Cliff Avril taunted Ryan, Suh pointed out that the quarterback was surrounded by the medical staff and out of earshot of any alleged trash talk while he was down on the field.

"I'm not even near their quarterback, so how am I going to trash talk somebody that has a medical staff that's all around him?" Suh said.

He also accused Atlanta's offensive line of dirty play, and said it was fitting that offensive lineman Will Svitek was the one who hurt Ryan by accidentally stepping on his foot.

"To me it's karma," Suh said. "For all the bad stuff they've done in the past, their offensive lineman hurt their own quarterback. That's all I have to say about it."

At this point, no matter what Suh says about anything, it's hard to take him at his word.

I seriously doubt it's just a coincidence that his name happened to be attached to this little incident. In less than a year and a half, he's been fined nearly $50,000 for his manhandling of league quarterbacks. He's been guilty of everything from pulling Jake Delhomme to the ground by the face mask, to spearing Jay Cutler in the back, to nearly ripping Andy Dalton's head off.

So if anyone thinks it's out of the realm of possibility for Suh to trash talk an injured player, you might want to have your head examined.

It's clear that he's unconcerned with the "dirty player" label that has been attached to him. In fact, he seems to relish it. Still, there's a fine line in playing hard to intimidate, and playing flat out dirty.

Apparently, Suh needs to learn how to distinguish between the two.

6 comments:

  1. The league is becoming ridiculously soft. But, this is what you get for forcing the players to talk to the media. Makes me even more proud of Albert Pujols for staying clear of the media for fear of saying something he didn't mean.

    I did, however, love Jason Babin's tweet after being fined for a "rough hit" on Alex Smith: "Attn:Guy at the NFL that decides on who and how much players get fined Stop being a puppet, if you want to protect QB's, get better linemen."

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  2. I would agree with Todd in that the league has definitely become too soft, but Suh still goes way overboard far too often. He's constantly hitting guys late, shoving people down after the whistle, or going high on the quarterbacks. The guy is an awesome talent, but he needs to stop with all the extra unnecessary crap he does all the time.

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  3. I dunno who's worse, Kris with his Tom Brady obsession, or Todd with his Albert Pujols one. Both of you bring them up in posts that aren't even about the sport they play. Get a life ladies.

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  4. Agreed. I don't doubt for a second that he taunted Ryan. Suh is a beast, but he needs to learn to control himself better.

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  5. Adam B. - Where ya been? Hadn't left any comments in a while. Was hoping we got lucky and you fell off the face of the earth. Guess not.

    Seriously though, I suppose every site needs a heckler to harass the writers, so thanks for being THAT GUY man.

    Shows how obsessed YOU are with US. :)

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  6. I think Suh needs to continue to play the way he's been playing. Detroit has been a league doormat for two decades. They need someone that plays like he does to show they're done being pushed around.

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