ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has formally appealed the two game suspension he received for stomping on Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith.
The suspension is in response to an incident where Suh was tangled on the ground with Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith. As Suh went to get up, he repeatedly pushed Dietrich-Smith’s helmet into the ground after the play. When Suh was back up and being separated from the incident, he stomped on Dietrich-Smith, who was still lying on the ground.
Suh apologized to his team, and called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Sunday evening to apologize as well.
Suh has been fined three times previously for illegal hits, and met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last month to review his hits and what the league guidelines are on what is legal and what isn’t.
“Obviously, it hurts to lose any player for two games, much less a player like Ndamukong Suh,” head coach Schwartz said. “But there is accountability for our actions. That’s a situation where something happened after the whistle. We want to be as tough and as physical and play as hard as we can between the snap and whistle, but anything that happens after that, we put our team in a bad position that we have to pay the consequences for.”
While the appeal itself isn’t surprising, who is handling the case is a bit of a surprise. The appeals officer in the case is Art Shell. Shell was a Hall of Fame offensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders, who made it to 8 Pro Bowls in his career, and later served as a head coach for the Raiders.
Since Suh was stomping on a fellow offensive lineman, he better hope that Shell doesn’t take that personally.
