Green Bay Packers offensive lineman T.J. Lang says Ndamukong Suh was so charged up in the Week 17 game between the teams that the Lions defensive lineman challenged him to a fight.
Lang was on the radio Friday with 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit and said Suh stepping on teammate Aaron Rodgers led to their battle. He says he didn’t see Suh step on Rodgers (watch the video here), but Rodgers’ words were enough to motivate him.
“From my vantage point, I turned around, I saw Aaron down, and I just tried to grab [Suh] to make sure he couldn’t land on him or anything,” Lang told “Valenti and Foster.” “A couple plays later we got into it a little bit. Aaron told me that – he was complaining that his calf hurt, that he got stepped on, which, for me, I’ve got to listen to my guy, my quarterback.
“We got into it after a block and just kind of started talking a little bit,” Lang continued. “I was telling him – he was challenging me to a fight, and I’m not afraid of him … It was all part of just the frustration, I think. I’m not going to say that I shut him down the whole game because we were double-teaming him 90 percent of the time — you’d be idiotic not to do that, the type of player he is. I think he was just frustrated that we were beating them and we were kind of getting after him a little bit.”
Lang brought up another really interesting point about Suh. He says Suh’s behavior seemed to be different when the teams met in Week 3. Lang noticed that Suh, who is regarded as one of the dirtier players in the league, was helping players up and being more of a sportsman on the field. Lang surmised that the change was due to Suh’s effort to clean up his image, especially with free agency looming.
Suh cried in his press conference after the Lions’ season ended, lending credence to the speculation that that was his last game with the team. We don’t expect him to be so soft-hearted when he steps back onto the field.
