Before Saturday night, the NFL wasn’t aware of the Week Two elbow to the head maneuver committed by Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh against Cardinals tackle Eric Winston.
The NFL is aware of it now, and the league will review the situation for potential discipline this week.
Per a league source, the hit by Suh is clearly a violation of the rules. The question is whether discipline would be imposed more than a week after the behavior occurred.
For reasons not currently known, the Cardinals didn’t alert the NFL to the play. That’s normally the way the the league office becomes aware of fairly obscure incidents. In this particular case, it would have been nearly impossible for the NFL to catch the quick and sudden blow to the head without a head’s up from the team whose player was on the receiving end of the illegal hit.
And while it has been assumed that the next strike for Suh will get him suspended, we’re told that a suspension is unlikely in light of the delay. If Suh is suspended, it will mean he should have been suspended for Sunday’s game at Washington, which the Lions won by only seven points.