Former NFL safety Rodney Harrison, who now works for NBC and NFL Network, developed a reputation as a dirty player during his career. But Harrison never did anything remotely similar to the post-whistle helmet-push-and-foot-stomp maneuver in which Ndamukong Suh engaged on Thursday.
On Friday, Harrison said that the only way to get Suh’s attention is to suspend him.
“It’s up to the Commissioner to step in and make an example out of this young man,” Harrison said Friday on NFL Total Access. “He’s got a $50 million contract, multiple commercial sponsorships, what’s $40,000, $50,000? Heck, I didn’t even make that type of money when I played and 10- or $15,000 didn’t bother me.
“Imagine the type of money he’s making, but the way to get his attention is you suspend him, you sit him on his butt for two games and I guarantee when he comes back he’ll be a different player.”
Harrison believes that, regardless of the league’s position on the matter, the Lions should take action.
“If you’re the Detroit Lions organization’s head coach, you have to pull this young man to the side and you have to go over the tape with him and tell him, and if you have to sit him down, an in-house suspension, that’s what needs to be done because he’s a leader of this team,” Harrison said.
Of course, this assumes that coach Jim Schwartz objects to Suh’s tactics. Yes, it made him unavailable for the team and arguably opened the floodgates. But Schwartz coached with Jeff Fisher in Tennessee, and the Titans under Fisher relished the intimidation factor that came from a defense that had a reputation for doing jumping jacks on the wrong side of the line. Indeed, Schwartz was the defensive coordinator in Nashville when Albert Haynesworth treated the forehead of Andre Gurode like a block of cheese.
So instead of suggesting that the Lions need to do something about Suh, maybe the league needs to do something about the Lions, as well as Suh.