After a controversial start to the season, Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh requested a meeting and sat down with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss the fines he’s received to date and his style of play. Suh walked away from the meeting comfortable with the way he’s playing.
“I’m not going to change the way I play,” Suh said. “I feel that the way I’m playing and the way I have played in the past is continuing to play within the rules.”
Suh feels that his unique power is behind the perception and some of the fines he’s incurred.
“I’m just a different breed,” Suh said. “You can’t treat everybody the same exact way. That would be unfair, but there’s guidelines that everybody needs to follow behind, so that’s more or less the understanding that I needed to see.”
“I think my hits may look a little bit different because of the type of strength and athleticism that I have, compared to some other defensive linemen. It’s just the way the world works.”
Suh feels that the fines and the meeting with Goodell have been a good learning experience. “Once you go through something, you’ve got to learn from it, whether it’s good or bad,” Suh said. “I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to repeat mistakes, and that was the main thing, more or less, that he was emphasizing. I haven’t really made any of the same mistakes that I have made in the past.”
Suh has invoked the comparison to basketball player Shaquille O’Neal, who was often called differently because his tremendous size and strength made fouls by him appear much more dangerous than fouls by smaller players. Shaq played at 7-foot-1 and about 325 pounds, so he frequently had a 50 to 100 pound weight advantage on other players, even other centers.
Suh, at 6-foot-4 and 307 pounds, is not that much larger than other defensive tackles but he is much more powerful than most other defenders, and he does have a 50 to 100 pound weight advantage compared with the quarterbacks he is hitting.
Suh had 10 sacks last season as a rookie and has 3 so far this season, and it’s primarily the quarterback hits that draw flags and fines. Suh has been fined three times in the past year and a half, all for hits on quarterbacks – Andy Dalton, Jay Cutler and Jake Delhomme.
“Nobody in this world agrees on everything,” Suh said. “What did I learn that I didn’t already know? Kind of the ins and outs of the way officiating, they kind of look at things and perceive things — and honestly, how the fines are assessed.”
