Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was suspended on Monday by the National Football League for Sunday’s playoff game at Dallas after stepping on the injured left leg of Aaron Rodgers.
Suh’s history might have played a role in the league’s decision to ban him for the actions in Sunday’s loss to Green Bay. Suh served a two-game ban in 2011 for stepping on the arm of a Green Bay blocker and has been fined five different times for his actions against opposing quarterbacks.
Suh backed into Rodgers after a fourth-quarter throw, knocking the Packers’ quarterback to the ground. With his back to the sprawled star, Suh stepped back with his cleated right shoe onto Rodgers’ leg.
Without any reaction to not feeling turf under his foot, Suh then stepped back with his left foot onto the injured calf area above the ankle of Rodgers’ leg, which was so sore in the second quarter that he had to be helped off the field.
“There’s no place for that,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said of the move.
Suh, set to become a free agent after the end of the Lions’ season, will appeal the suspension and was expected to have an answer yesterday.
The team’s Web site revealed part of a letter from league vice president of football operations Merton Hanks to Suh.
“You did not respond in the manner of someone who had lost his balance and accidentally contacted another player who was lying on the ground,” Hanks wrote to Suh. “This illegal contact, specifically the second step and push off with your left foot, clearly could have been avoided. You unnecessarily stepped on your opponent’s unprotected leg as he lay on the ground unable to protect himself.”
Losing Suh will make it even more difficult for the Lions to control Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray and pressure Dallas quarterback Tony Romo in their National Conference first-round playoff matchup. The Cowboys rank fifth in the NFL in scoring and second in rushing.
The Lions faced Green Bay without center Dominic Raiola, who was serving a one-game ban for stomping on the back of the leg of Chicago defensive tackle Ego Ferguson the week before.
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