Defending the Lions’ Best Defender: Ndamukong Suh Is Not a Dirty Player

Idiots. They’re everywhere. In Detroit, we’re used to the likes of Drew Sharp and Rob Parker, so the drivel that most national pundits spew out shouldn’t surprised us much. Still, it’s always fun to find some poor bastard to rip to shreds whenever it’s deserved. Take, for example, CBS’s Mike Freeman, veteran of a whole 3 months according to his archives. Mike seems to think that Lions DT and supreme overlord Ndamukong Suh is a dirty player. Unfortunately, thinking isn’t exactly something Mr. Freeman is very good at, as you’ll see below (his words in italics).

Ndamukong Suh

It’s official: Ndamukong Suh is a dirty player.

It’s official: you’re an idiot.

He no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt. There’s too much evidence to the contrary.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is Suh’s second pro season. He still drives a Chrysler, for chrissakes.

That great smile, nice off-field demeanor…

We can work on setting you up on a date if you want…

…and cool ass car commercial (told ya) can no longer shield him from what has become a definite. He plays dirty.

Over/under on Lions games Mike Freeman watched last year: 2.5. I’m taking the under.

And I like Suh. A lot.

Again, a date is in the works. Be patient, buddy.

He brings a nastiness to the Detroit Lions, a desire to intimidate that is changing the culture of one of the biggest losers in all of sports. This is good. No, this is great. The Lions are going to be good again and it’s Suh’s talent and aggression serving as the fusion for change.

These four sentences hold more truth than anything that the aforementioned Drew Sharp or Rob Parker have ever written. Combined. Congratulations Mr. Freeman, you’re not the worst columnist of all-time.

“We wanted to earn respect last year,” Suh told CBS following the Lions’ game against New England on Saturday night. “I felt we did that. We want to continue to earn that respect. And now it’s with fear, it’s all about fear. It’s about having quarterbacks fear us, offensive linemen fear us, every single game we step into. And that’s by our play. So we want to continue to get after quarterbacks and offensive lines and wreak havoc.”

All hail Suh.

That’s good. Love that attitude.

There’s a term for that, Mike. We call it “submissive.”

If you went into a laboratory and combined Michael Strahan with Warren Sapp, you’d get Suh.

So where did the gap teeth go?

It doesn’t get much better than that.

While his talent is undeniable and his fury a good thing, he hasn’t learned to properly harness that aggression. It spills out at times uncontrollably and it’s only a matter of time before Suh is suspended and his reputation morphs into something not so positive.

I’m pretty sure if Suh actually kills a quarterback (because let’s face it, that’s the next logical step), the fans in Detroit will only love him more. Do your homework, Freeman.

In fact, I think that is already happening.

I bet your editor does too. At least he did until you hit “publish.”

I can tell you the league is watching Suh’s behavior extremely closely.

And yet murderers and dog killers run wild. What a great league this is.

If it continues he’s going to be hit with a much more massive fine. That’s a guarantee.

Good thing he did that Chrysler commercial.

The latest incident with Suh came against the Patriots. It was a brutal game featuring a few skirmishes. Patriots guard Logan Mankins was involved in a beef with a Lions player when Suh approached Mankins and threw a punch. It connected.

Mike? It’s called FOOTBALL. Watch it sometime.

He should have been tossed but the game official missed it. Replays clearly showed the punch. How an official could miss a man the size of mobile home throwing a punch is a mystery.

How an idiot can get a job with a national news service is also a mystery, but shit like that happens every day apparently.

On Twitter, Lions fans showed their smallness by saying Suh was justified throwing the punch because he was defending a teammate.

Being a fan makes you less of a person. Got it. Wouldn’t want to make myself look bad by rooting for a sports team or anything.

That’s part of The Danny Ainge Syndrome. If you were a Celtics fan when Ainge was in Boston, you loved him. If he was an opponent, you thought he was cheap.

That’s called “Every-Player-That-Has-Ever-Played-Sports Syndrome.”

So I understand that phenomenon and it’s happening with Suh.

I’m pretty sure Suh is way more talented than Danny Ainge ever was. Maybe you should change the name of that “disease” to Scrappy White Man Syndrome.

There’s still no excusing what he did. It was totally a punk move and there’s little doubt the NFL is going to fine Suh.

I’m pretty sure he can afford it. New Chrysler and all.

Then again, getting fined is something Suh should be accustomed to. He was fined $20,000 by the NFL for his recent body slam of Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton. Suh was fined $7,500 for a dirty hit on Jake Delhomme last year and $15,000 for a hit on Jay Cutler.

Columnist checklist: make controversial statement, stick head in ass, run a Google search and insert a few stats, then proceed to give someone important a virtual handjob to make your point.

That hit, to me, was legal.

Then shut up, for fuck’s sake.

But it was like a lot of things with Suh — it was unnecessary and indicative of how Suh doesn’t seem to understand the nuance of football.

See guy. Hit guy. I think Suh understands that just fine.

So that’s three fines and at least four personal fouls in less than two years and that doesn’t include the fine likely coming his way for Saturday’s punch. That’s quite a track record in such a short period of time.

Have you ever watched James Harrison play football, Mike? He did all that in two weeks.

This is a different era in the sport.

*Yawns*

The league office wants to clean up the over-the-top hits. We can debate the hypocrisy or silliness of this stance but it’s a fact in the sport now. This isn’t the 1950s. Punching guys or body slamming them won’t be tolerated in Goodell’s NFL.

Goodell’s NFL! Check out our new logo!

swastika

Again, go ahead and call the NFL soft. It doesn’t matter what you or I think. This is the nature of the sport in the 21st century.

So getting fined for touching a guy qualifies as dirty now? Good to know. Can’t wait for the National Flag Football League in 4 years.

Players must live within this construct. Suh doesn’t think he has to. He’s turning this into a battle of wills, and if Suh thinks he can beat the league, he’s a fool. Suh vs. quarterbacks? Suh wins. Suh vs. the league office? Suh’s the one who gets body slammed.

Since he only has to beat the quarterbacks to win a championship, I think he’s fine with this. Try again later.

Suh has crossed the threshold from aggressive to dirty, but it’s not too late for him to come back.

Uhh, for you? Yeah, it is. Since yesterday’s game was probably the first Lions game you’ve watched in the last two years, you did a quick Google search, found a few facts, and spit out a bullshit article. Well done, Mike. Enjoy your new job and make sure to clean off Roger Goodell’s pants when you’re done giving him the collective handjob that is your entire CBS career. Ass.

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