Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had his ankle accidentally stepped on by one of his offensive lineman Sunday, and the Falcons say the Lions taunted him after the injury.
“I had respect for [Lions DT Ndamukong] Suh before the game,” center Todd McClure said. “But when Matt was on the ground, the things he was saying and the trash he was talking was definitely uncalled for. There are certain things you don’t do. [He said], ‘Get the cart’ and several other things that I can’t repeat.”
Roddy White said, “I lost a whole lot of respect for 90 [Suh] today, and also 92 [Cliff Avril], the [bleep] they were doing when Matt got hurt. That was unacceptable. … Like 92 was kicking [Ryan’s] feet, saying, ‘Get him off the field.’ We don’t do stuff like that. We don’t rally over guys when they get hurt. It was just inappropriate behavior. I mean, ‘Get the cart’? Are you serious? Come on. When you compete, you never want to see a guy get hurt.”
This is not the first, second, or third time Ndamukong Suh has been called a dirty player, so this isn’t new territory. Predictably, Suh denied the charge when asked about it Monday.
“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 according to a tweet from Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
“To me it’s karma,” he said. “For all the bad stuff they’ve done in the past, their offensive lineman hurt their own qb. So I’ll leave it at that.”
The best part came when Suh was asked if he was bothered by the Falcons’ accusations.
“Do I need Rodney White’s respect? No. Leave it at that,” Suh said of the Atlanta receiver, whose name is actually “Roddy,” not “Rodney.” We figure that was Suh’s last zinger.
As far as the charges go, we’ll say a few things. One, the defense’s job is to tackle the opposing players, and to hit them hard (as long as its within the rules). Their objective is to knock out opposing players. I’m sure they don’t want the Falcons suffering serious injuries, but they don’t mind seeing them leave the game.
Lastly, Roddy White is known for speaking out of his butt sometimes. How would he know what was occurring in the backfield if he was downfield from running a route? Good question.
