ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Ndamukong Suh’s stomp will cost him two games without pay.
The NFL suspended Detroit’s All-Pro defensive tackle on Tuesday for roughing up a Green Bay Packers player in front of a national television audience during a loss on Thanksgiving Day. Suh will miss Sunday night’s game at New Orleans and a Dec. 11 home game against Minnesota and he won’t be paid until he is reinstated Dec. 12.
Suh formally appealed the punishment Tuesday afternoon. Art Shell will serve as the appeals officer. Appeals of discipline for on-field violations do not go to commissioner Roger Goodell.
The league plans to expedite the hearing to make a decision before the Lions play the Saints.
Suh is remorseful and knows he made a mistake last week, but he also was encouraged by the NFL Players Association and Goodell to appeal his two-game suspension, league sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
Suh also is prepared to conform with the punishment, meaning that he is expected to miss Sunday’s game against the Saints with the hope that his suspension could be reduced to one game, sources said.
This suspension is a larger issue than with just Suh, according to one source. The NFLPA wants to try to prevent other players involved in similar incidents from being suspended in the future.
Suh’s suspension will cost him $164,000, or two game checks.
Suh called Goodell on Sunday to apologize, but it didn’t seem to help.
“We respect the process the league undertook in order to arrive at this decision,” the Lions said in a statement before Tuesday afternoon’s practice. The team will have a roster exception during Suh’s suspension.
Message seeking comment were left by The Associated Press with Suh’s agent and sister. Suh can’t practice or be at the Lions’ practice facility during the suspension.
Earlier this season, the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year requested a meeting with Goodell to discuss his play after he drew several penalties. Suh said he had a better understanding of the rules after that meeting.
Instead, he will be watching his teammates scramble to keep up in the NFC wild-card race after what the league was his fifth violation of on-field rules in his first two years in the NFL.
Suh-spended
The Lions’ Ndamukong Suh has received eight personal foul penalties since the start of last season, tied for most in the NFL during that span.
The Lions (7-4) currently would miss the playoffs, losing tiebreakers with the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons, who both are also 7-4.
During the third quarter of Thursday’s 27-15 loss to the Packers, Suh lifted up his right knee and forcibly stepped on the right arm of Green Bay guard Evan Dietrich-Smith. On the same play, Suh shoved Dietrich-Smith’s helmet toward the turf while separating himself from the Packers player on the ground.
He was ejected for kicking and insisted during his postgame news conference that he didn’t intentionally step on Dietrich-Smith. After the Lions criticized his conduct the next day, Suh issued an apology and the talk of the league was whether he was the NFL’s dirtiest player.
NFL vice president of football operations Merton Hanks notified Suh of the penalty for “unsportsmanlike conduct” on Tuesday.
Suh has already been fined three times for roughing up quarterbacks and another time for unsportsmanlike conduct.
He grabbed Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton and threw him to the turf after he had gotten rid of the ball in a preseason game this year. He was docked twice last year for shoving Chicago’s Jay Cutler high in the back and for twisting Cleveland quarterback Jake Delhomme’s face mask and slamming him to the ground. He also was fined $5,000 during Week 9 in the 2010 season for unsportsmanlike conduct.
via Ndamukong Suh of Detroit Lions suspended two games without pay – ESPN.
