Falcons receiver Roddy White said after Sunday’s game in Detroit that he lost respect for Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh because Suh taunted an injured Matt Ryan.
Suh said today that he doesn’t particularly care if White respects him.
“Do I need Rodney White’s respect? No. Leave it at that,” Suh said.
Yes, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Suh called Roddy White “Rodney.” I’m not sure if Suh misspoke, if he doesn’t know White’s actual first name, or if he wanted to take a subtle dig at White by pretending not to know White’s actual first name. But it’s funny in any event.
Regarding the allegations that he and teammate Cliff Avril taunted Ryan, Suh pointed out the same thing that Lions coach Jim Schwartz pointed out today: Ryan was surrounded by the Falcons’ medical staff and out of earshot of any alleged trash talk while he was down on the field.
“I’m not even near their quarterback so how am I going to trash talk somebody that has a medical staff that’s all around him?” Suh said.
Suh also accused the Falcons’ offensive line of dirty play and said it was fitting that Falcons offensive lineman Will Svitek was the one who hurt Ryan by accidentally stepping on his foot.
“To me it’s karma,” Suh said. “For all the bad stuff they’ve done in the past, their offensive lineman hurt their own quarterback. So I’ll leave it at that.”
So as far as Suh is concerned, that ends this week’s round of accusations that he’s a dirty player. But with the Lions in Denver next week, we can expect a whole new round of controversy if Suh takes a shot at Tim Tebow.