Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Ndahmukong Suh and a bad joke.

Picking up an opposing quarterback and depositing him on his head was bad enough. Trying to wring somebody's neck like a chicken was worse. Jumping on the back of an opponent while he's down, slamming his head into the ground a few times, and cowardly stomping on him while he's helpless finally got all but the hardest-core Detroit Lions fans to see what kind of individual this, and I use the term loosely, "man" is.

Yours truly doesn't know what sort of "up-bringing" Suh had in Portland, Oregon, nor how he was treated at the University of Nebraska but, in my opinion, nobody ever taught him anything about being a man.

People make mistakes. A MAN will step up and admit it, suffer the consequences, hopefully learn from it, and move on. Not Suh.

Suh was granted an audience with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to clarify a few rules about his behavior. This is not something that happens just every day. A player having a chat with the Commish would be like a worker getting in to see the CEO of the company, or a citizen sitting down with the governor of their state to hash out a few concerns. A MAN would respect that authority and listen up to what came back. Not Suh. His response? I'm not going to change.

Evidently he hasn't. He's gone from being perceived as dirty, to disrespectful, and now seems intent on proving himself to be a chump.

Yes, he gets paid millions of dollars to be a disruptive force against opposing offenses on the football field, and he's very good at it. Yet if the Detroit franchise suited up a REAL lion, tucked it's mane and tail in, and put a helmet on it, I dare say if it could comprehend snap counts, it would wreak havoc as well. Can you imagine being an All-Pro guard or tackle and having that thing lining up against you in a 4-point stance? That would take "false starts" to a whole new level. Like running off the field.

But that lion could be excused, because it's merely the nature of the beast. Whether you believe in Divine creation or evolution, that creature has been around for thousands, if not millions, of years, and it's not supposed to act like a man. Suh is.

He hasn't. In his latest bit of showing no class, after sacking the back-up QB at Green Bay, Matt Flynn, who was in the process of shredding the Lions' defense, Suh decided to mock Packers' starting QB Aaron Rodgers over a TV commercial Rodgers had filmed weeks before about holding the "title belt". Evidently, Suh never realized that Rodgers wasn't even suited up for the game, along with several other of Green Bay's top players. Why risk injury when you have home field already locked up? That also raises another possibility. I would certainly hope Suh could tell the difference between the names and numbers on the backs of opposing QB's uniforms. If not, it would leave one to wonder --- just exactly what sort of classes was he taking in high school and college anyway? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.

But leave it to Ndamukong to make a fool of himself. Again.

It started out as a novelty, then turned to concern. Over a short time, it became outrage in many quarters, including scribes from coast to coast and beyond, and certainly the internet.

Now it's just a joke.

It seems there's only one guy that doesn't get it.

Maybe that's because he's the punch line.

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