Anonymous Detroit Lions player calls out Ndamukong Suh: 'He loses his cool'
He’s come under fire from anonymous general managers and identifiable opponents, and now Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is catching flak from an unnamed teammate.
After Sunday’s 35-33 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, one Lions player told Yahoo Sports that Suh and others “don’t understand what it takes to win.”
“Yeah, we're loaded," the unnamed player told Yahoo. "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?' "
Asked who in particular fell into that category, the player said, “Ndamukong would be first.”
In some ways, Suh played his best games of the season against the Colts. He sacked Andrew Luck on Indianapolis' first play, made six tackles, including four for loss, and hit Luck six more times.
But he also got out of his rush lane on the game’s final play, when Luck stepped up in the pocket and hit Donnie Avery for a game-winning 14-yard touchdown as time expired.
“He's focused for 90 percent of the time," an anonymous teammate told Yahoo. "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.”
Suh has been at the center of plenty of controversy in his three-year NFL career.
After an all-pro rookie season, he was suspended two games last year for stomping on the arm of Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith. Last month he was fined $30,000 for kicking Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub in the groin on Thanksgiving. And earlier this year, an anonymous general manager ripped him as belonging on the "all-hype team" to ProFootball Weekly.
On Sunday, Colts offensive lineman Mike McGlynn accused Suh of taunting Winston Justice after he blocked Justice during an interception return and gave the lineman a concussion.
Suh said Wednesday he was celebrating the interception and insisted “I’m the type of player that would never celebrate anybody being hurt.” Replays showed Suh delivered a clean block on Justice and did not capture the celebration.
Still, the unnamed Lion who spoke to Yahoo blamed Suh’s behavior for some of what has ailed the team during its disappointing 4-8 season.
“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.”