Ndamukong Suh has been criticized by many different sources, but he has generally had the support of the Detroit Lions organization. His coaches have backed him and so have his teammates. Until now.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports quoted an anonymous teammate of Suh who was critical of the defensive lineman’s behavior.
“Yeah, we’re loaded,” the anonymous player told Cole following Detroit’s last-second loss to the Colts on Sunday. “But we have a couple of guys who don’t understand what it takes to win. Just making a couple of plays and thinking that makes you great … sometimes you want to just shake some of these guys and say, ‘Don’t you get it?'”
The player reportedly told Cole that Suh would be first on the list of Lions players who doesn’t understand what it takes to win.
“He’s focused for 90 percent of the time,” a teammate said. “But it’s the 10 percent that kills you. … With [Suh], he loses his cool and all of a sudden we’re blowing a play or dealing with some controversy.
“When stars act like that, everybody else thinks it’s OK to act like that,” the player said. “It’s like with kids. You let one get a little out of control, the other one does the same thing pretty quick. It’s human nature.”
Suh was praised for playing a good game against the Colts. He had a sack, six tackles, including four for a loss, and he hit Andrew Luck six more times. But he also got out of his rushing lane on the game’s final play, allowing Luck to escape the pocket and find Donnie Avery for the winning touchdown pass. That’s pretty much the 90-10 problem summed up, right?
Suh was an All-Pro player in his rookie year, but his time in the NFL has been littered with controversy since then.
He was suspended two games for his stomp on Evan Dietrich-Smith last year, and he was fined $30,000 for kicking Matt Schaub in the groin this year. There have been countless accusations of him being dirty and celebrating opposing players‘ injuries as well.
It’s about time someone within the Lions’ organization called him out. The more Detroit allows him to get away with, the worse it will be for the team.
