On FOX’s pregame show on Sunday, Jay Glazer reported that Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh’s penchant for crossing the line in games extended to practices as well.
“Even in practice, Ndamukong gives guys the business,” Glazer said. “He’ll slam a guy’s head against the ground. He’ll stomp on a guy. He’ll take little shots at guys. And guys are concerned if he can’t control himself even in practice with us, how can he control himself against someone else’s jersey?”
Lions coach Jim Schwartz was asked about Glazer’s report on Monday and said that there were no issues with Suh’s behavior and that he thought the team’s beat writers would have turned up something before Glazer if there were issues that needed to be dealt with.
“I can say unequivocally he has never slammed anybody’s head to the ground or stomped on anybody,” Schwartz said. “That’s just inflammatory stuff, it gets headlines and it gets reaction. But I would bet that you guys would have reported that long before a guy that’s never been to one of our practices reports it.”
Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press quotes a team source as saying that Suh’s behavior has not been an issue this year, when the team opened all of their preseason practices to the media, but that there were times he got “too rough” in the past. Birkett writes that Schwartz seemed to keep his comments focused on the current season, but there wasn’t much sign in previous seasons that the Lions had problems with the way Suh conducted himself around his teammates.