GROVE CITY, Penn., October 24, 2011—Ndamukong Suh is the best defensive tackle in the NFL. He punishes quarterbacks like they’ve cheated on Jennifer Aniston. Despite the recent heat he’s received for his Romanowski-like style, Suh is not a dirty player. Not even close.
Suh’s mission in life is to destroy the quarterback. The man gets paid well to do so. He admirably overcomes overcoming the obstacles that attempt to impede his path to the goal (weary offensive tackles). Suh embodies the city for which he plays, Detroit: tough, gritty, a wee bit scary, and will probably cause you physical harm. He’s so good at bullrushing, the Lions owe much their sudden resurgence to their drafting of Suh second overall in 2010. But NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sat down with Suh yesterday about his allegedly dirty play.
Quarterbacks have become princesses. The NFL has taken measures to ensure their ultimate protection beyond the five behemoths in front of him; indeed, the term “roughing the passer” is now synonymous with “delicately laying fingers on the rich guy.” (Otherwise known as high school football in Connecticut.)
Come on, peons. When did quarterbacks stop being football players? It’s disrespect to the greats, frankly. Do you think Johnny Unitas needed special treatment, NFL? Did Kenny Stabler ever throw a temper-tantrum when he was knocked down after he passed the ball? No; he got up, grit his teeth (probably said a dirty word) and fired a bullet to Freddie Biletnikoff on the next play. Those men were football players. Jay Cutler is not a football player; he’s a spoiled teenager in a perpetual state of celebrating his sweet-sixteenth birthday party. Modern quarterbacks are used to being coddled from age three. They come to expect preferential treatment in every facet of their lives. They’re therefore incapable of taking a smack in the chest like Jim Kelly – aka, a man.
That’s why old-school quarterback-killers like Suh get tarnished for being “dirty players.” Suh is a great football player whose talent compares with Randy White and Joe Greene. Don’t belittle his play because modern sports society enables the Kardashian-like treatment of quarterbacks.
I guarantee Suh will not change his domination of worrisome offensive fronts. We must urge him onward, lest the real way football is played be lost forever.
Read more of Sam Bovard’s work at Balls Without Discretion in the Communities at The Washington Times.
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