subject: Detroit Lions Tickets - Suh Roars In Preseason [print this page] Ndamukong Suh hasn't yet played his first regular season game in the NFL, but he's already gaining quite the reputation in the league. Suh, a defensive tackle out of Nebraska and the second overall pick from this year's NFL Draft, came out of the lion's den with a bite bigger than his roar this preseason, and things got heated during the Lions' preseason game against the Cleveland Browns in the third week of the preseason.
Suh created possibly the biggest controversy of the preseason during the Lions-Browns game on Aug. 28 on a play that saw Browns quarterback Jake Delhomme get owned on the football field. During a play in the second quarter of the preseason matchup, Delhomme ran to get out of the pocket and was clobbered by Suh, who grabbed his face mask, twisted it and slammed Delhomme to the ground after he had gotten rid of the ball.
Suh was immediately flagged and the Lions received a 15-yard penalty for his unnecessary roughness, but the controversy hasn't yet been swept under the rug. A visibly upset Delhomme popped up after the play, protesting Suh's tackle to the referees. Though refs dealt Suh a penalty right away, he could now face further penalties including a hefty fine. At the request of Browns coach Eric Mangini, further examination is now underway on the play that potentially could have had Suh thrown out of the game.
After the Browns-Lions game, Cleveland's backup quarterback Seneca Wallace spoke to the press about Suh's slam on Delhomme, with the Washington Post reporting him saying, "He already face masked him, then he grabs him by the neck, twists it and throws him down. To me, that's something you can get suspended for. I think... I understand the face mask part. But he horse collared him and threw him down. We laughed about it, but that stuff can get people really hurt."
As for Delhomme, the 35-year-old quarterback is simply shaking it off and is considering himself incredibly lucky to have escaped the hard hit without injury. When asked by NFL.com about potential disciplinary action for Suh's actions, Delhomme said, "I'll let the league office handle that. We got a first down out of it and that made me happy."
Still, Ndamukong Suh is a name that is certainly selling tons of Detroit Lions tickets this season. The Lions are on the mend from a horrific 2-14 season last year and an even more dismal 0-16 record in 2008, and they're hoping their 2010 first-round draft pick will help propel the momentum for a winning season this year.
If one player can help put the Lions back on the right track, it is Ndamukong Suh. The Oregon native is one of the most explosive defensive tackles to come out of the collegiate circuit in a long while, and he was all the talk of the offseason this year. Suh was a Heisman Trophy finalist last year and helped Nebraska to its first-ever shutout in the 2009 Holiday Bowl. Can he help the Lions improve this season, as well? It's all to come as football season gets underway!
