While it was wrong for Cardinals guard Paul Fanaika to dive awkwardly (twice) at the knees of Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, we may be seeing more of it.
In response to our item from last night with video proof of Suh driving a fist or elbow into the helmet of Cardinals tackle Eric Winston, we’ve heard from at least one player who says that there’s a growing sense in NFL circles that players have had enough of Suh’s antics.
“I’ll be interested to see how things go for him for the rest of the year,” the player said. The rest of the year starts today, against Washington.
The league presumably has had enough, too. Still, it’s unclear why Suh hasn’t been disciplined for his latest transgression.
Previously, the league office missed it and the Cardinals didn’t raise it. As a result, some players wonder whether players should have the ability to make complaints directly to the league office, either in their own name or anonymously.
While it could get petty quickly, having a hotline (like the one the NFL uses to report that players may be hiding concussions) would give the NFL the ability to go look at the film and make their own conclusions.
In this case, it would have been simple to confirm that the blow to the head occurred. It’s much harder to spot it when generally looking at game film.
Moving forward, every snap involving Suh will likely be scrutinized carefully -- both to see what he is doing and to see what is being done to him.