Falcons punch out Lions, then rip Suh for taunting Ryan

The Detroit fans weren’t booing Ryan when he came back out. Suh had just made a play at the same time Ryan was coming back. They were “Suhhhhhhhh”-ing.

• Link
• Report this comment

[...] his ankle accidentally stepped on by one of his offensive lineman Sunday, and the Falcons say the Lions taunted him after the [...]

• Link
• Report this comment

[...] McClure and others in the locker room said they heard Suh, Cliff Avril and possibly other Detroit lineman taunting Ryan when he was laying on the field. One of White’s comments was: “Like 92 [Avril] was kicking [Ryan’s] feet, saying, [...]

• Link
• Report this comment

Watch the film. It never Lies.but obviously the falcons and their journalists do. Never heard of a whining team that won. Falcons are scrubs. Good thing they have an imagination. Imagine what its going to be like seeing the lions in the playoffs. Haha. Poor journalism. Poor football team. You beat the lions by 7 and you’re basically calling them classless scrubs. Well then you should have won by more than 7. The best thing to come out of Atlanta is young Jeezy. Everything else is garbage.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hello Atlanta Falcons fans, Lions fan here and first of all I want to congratulate the Atlanta Falcons and their fan base for a well-deserved win yesterday. I would also like to send my best wishes to Matt Ryan, and hope that he has no lingering issues with his ankle from yesterdays game. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Matt Stanford came away as fortunate as it appeared Matt Ryan did, but those are the breaks for an NFL player and team.

Mr. Jeff Schultz, I’ve read your article and most of the comments pertaining to your reporting of the extracurricular activities that took place in yesterdays game. Sir I find your article to be offensive, inaccurate, slanderous, and with absolutely no merit. It’s irresponsible journalist like you sir whom fan the flames of hatred, and biased opinions from sports fans that are too lazy, or ignorant to check the facts before they make comments which the NFL tape of the incident verifies the untruthfulness of at least one troubled and melodramatic Atlanta Falcons player (Roddy White). I have read all kinds of ugly and completely inaccurate comments about Lions players, head coach, and the Lions organization in general. For those of you who claim that Jim Schwartz somehow condones Detroit Lions players committing personal foul, or unnecessary roughness penalties. Yeah right is that why Gosder Cherilus was benched for week two after committing a personal foul, unnecessary roughness penalty at the end of the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If anyone claims anything of the kind regarding Jim Schwartz I would suggest they have there water source tested for the contents of LSD, or some other form of hallucinogenic!!! Now even Nick Fairley is being accused of being a dirty player… are you kidding me? Nick Fairley has only played in three games so far this year because he was coming off of a broken foot that he suffered in the first, or second day of training camp. He hasn’t even been on the field for two dozen plays as of yet, because one, they don’t want him to have a relapse, and two, he hasn’t had enough NFL experience to know what all of his assignment are. This is exactly how misconceptions and false assessments of players like Ndamukong Suh cause people to get the impression that Ndamukong is a dirty player, or is trying to cause injury. It gets escalated to other players on the Detroit Lions team such as Cliff Averill whom until yesterday has never been accused of dirty play, or intentionally trying to injure other players. In all reality I can understand Georgia Bulldog fans dislike of Nate Fairley, because he played his football at Auburn. But in all fairness shouldn’t he at least draw one penalty in his career before he is unfairly labeled as yet another dirty Lions player?

If you look at the film from yesterdays game you will see that (I believe it was) Corey Williams that jumped offsides and made contact with Matt Ryan’s helmet, which he was appropriately flagged for, but there was absolutely no intent to injure Matt Ryan, nor was he flattened as someone on this post inaccurately claimed. Also if you look at the film of Matt Ryan’s injury when he was down on the field there are several things I can bring to your attention that directly contradicts what two Atlanta Falcons claimed. One thing I would like to point out is that Lawrence Jackson could have pounced on Matt Ryan, while he was down on the field and injured. Consciously he did not throw his weight on top of Matt Ryan even though it appeared he lost control momentarily of the football. The second thing I would like to bring to your attention is the complete absence of Cliff Averill anywhere near Matt Ryan while he was down on the field and in obvious discomfort. How pray tell did Cliff Averill kick Matt Ryan’s feet when he wasn’t within 6 or 7 feet of him while he was on the turf? Number three, can anyone realistically see anything in the video that would suggest that any Detroit Lion said anything about Matt Ryan while he was laying on the turf? Seriously people do you believe that if someone made any remarks such as what were alleged by only two Atlanta Falcons players one of whom was well down the field at the time (Roddy White) that no one would have responded in defense of Matt Ryan? Come on people… if the tide had turned and it was Matt Stafford laying on the turf and one of your Atlanta Falcons made some comment such as has been alleged I know that the Lions would be jawing with whomever made such a stupid comment. That isn’t to say they are dirty, it’s just a matter of teammates whom would naturally get into the face of an opposing player to retaliate verbally and put him in his place for being so disrespectful. I can’t imagine that the Atlanta Falcons wouldn’t have been in either Ndamukong, or Cliff’s face in that case which as an ex-athlete I would expect from my fellow teammates. I’m not saying that no Detroit Lions player did not make a comment pertaining to the cart, but if anything about the cart was set by a Lion player I would strongly suspect that it was of concern because of the way Matt Ryan’s ankle lock when he was stepped on by his own offensive lineman. You must understand one thing about professional football players… nobody, and I mean nobody who plays football wants to see another player get carted off the field. Number four, how is it that only Todd McClure and Roddy White (whom was downfield at the time) were the only two people that heard what allegedly was deemed to be taunting? There are at least six Atlanta Falcons in the video including Matt Ryan whom is on record stating that he heard no such taunting from the Detroit Lions, has anyone asked themselves why only two people heard any taunting? Why if taunting was actually taking place, didn’t any other Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman report that they also heard the Lions taunting Matt Ryan? Lastly I have one more thing I find awfully fishy with regard to this story… why was it that Jeff Schultz couldn’t find Ndamukong, or Cliff after the game so he could at least ask them for their side of the story?

I don’t know Jeff Schultz personally, but this story seems so irresponsible of what I am assuming is a professional journalist. The facts are that the Detroit Lions have not caused any injuries to any players on any of the teams they have played this year, nor last year. The Kansas City Chiefs running back (Jamaal Charles) did have a season ending injury while playing the Detroit Lions, but he was not touched by a Detroit Lions player when he went out of bounds and slipped on the down marker which caused his season ending knee injury. I admit that Ndamukong draws more personal foul penalties than he, Jim Schwartz, any other Lions teammate, or fan would like to see, but they aren’t for intent to injure another player. But if you look at his penalties for personal fouls you will see that every one of them are for contacting a quarterbacks face mask or helmet, while he is trying to pressure, or stack a quarterback and most often while fighting through a double team. The coaching staff is actively working on him getting his hands lower so he contacts opposing quarterbacks chest high, rather than anywhere above the shoulders because of the ramifications those penalties bring. He, nor any other Lions player hit people below the knees, blindside defenseless players, or anything else that could cause severe injuries. Ndamukong Suh has also drawn flags from officials for perfectly legal tackles which is ridiculous when you consider the ramifications they bring with them. Last year when we were playing the Dallas Cowboys Suh tackled Marian Barber by his dreadlocks, which is considered part of the uniform and therefore is a perfectly legal tackle, yet he was flagged for a horse collar tackle. Replay shows that he tackled Marian Barber with one hand and his hand never came in contact with anything except Marian Barber’s hair. Then he drew another personal foul penalty for pushing Jay Cutler down to the ground face first while he was carrying the football past the line of scrimmage trying to scramble for a first down. That had to be the most disheartening penalty of the season because as Jay Cutler fell to the ground he fumbled the football, which the Detroit Lions recovered and while leading on the scoreboard. The referee who threw that flag motioned with his elbow that Suh used his elbow like a weapon to deliberately injure the back of Jay Cutler’s neck, but as the replay confirms the referee was entirely wrong with his first impression and Ndamukong pushed Jay Cutler with the palms of both hand’s just below Jay’s shoulders and completely on Jay’s back to push him down to the ground. Mike Pereira chimed in during that game after looking at the replay and said that the referee obviously got that call wrong, that Ndamukong Suh didn’t do anything illegal during that play, yet the commissioner still find him for drawing a flag. Even Jay Cutler didn’t consider anything Suh did during that play illegal, and he was on the receiving end of the tackle. Ironically Suh nor any other Detroit Lions player were objects of the media week in and week out until Cris Carter left Calvin Johnson off of his list of top five receivers in the NFL. One or two weeks later we played the Dallas Cowboys and Rob Ryan said that Calvin Johnson would be the third-best receiver on their team. The Lions played off Rob Ryan’s remarks and let Calvin Johnson’s play on the field speak for itself. After the Detroit Lions won that game Rob Ryan said they haven’t played the NFC East, implying that the Lions would have no chance of defeating any of those teams. Then we played the 49ers and Jim Schwartz didn’t handle Jim Harbaugh’s enthusiastic response and handshake after defeating the Detroit Lions, which I didn’t condone Jim Schwartz’s response. But something that went completely unmentioned during that whole fiasco was that Jim Harbaugh more than likely felt even more satisfied with that victory due to his previous experience with a Detroit Lions nobody seems to remember that near Jim Harbaugh’s end of his career (in 2001) he signed as a backup quarterback behind Charlie Batch. On the eve of the season opener the Detroit Lions made a trade for Ty Detmer, and Jim Harbaugh was cut. Jim Harbaugh was understandably hurt by the Lions choice, so I’m sure that with his 49ers defeating the Detroit Lions he more than likely felt a little extra satisfaction out of that victory.. Karma is a funny thing and Detroit Lions do not want any bad karma coming back and haunting them. In fact most of the players in the NFL believe in karma good and bad, and by nature they try to do what ever they can to avoid the bad karma. When you look at Matthew Stafford’s career thus far twice he has had season ending injuries and twice in one season he had an injury that cost him several games during one season. Of Matt’s three injuries in two seasons only one of them was actually penalize even though everyone thinks Julius pepper should have been penalized and fined for piledriving Matt into the turf. We’re used to not getting calls here in Detroit because of the NFL clearly has a double standard for teams that don’t have winning records, so we’re kind of used to it here in Detroit.

Hopefully I have helped to open the eyes of at least some of the Atlanta Falcons fan base with the facts pertaining to the allocation’s made by only two Atlanta Falcons players. And maybe, just maybe some of you will look at Ndamukong Suh and the rest of the Detroit Lions players with a more objective eye. A few people visit the Detroit Lions website and listened to the Detroit Lions players I would almost guarantee that your opinion of anyone on this team being a thug would most likely be surprised of them all. Many people listen to the players on their home football teams and believe the nonsense a few individual players claim the Detroit Lions said about them personally. No one on the Lions make any claim as to how they’re going to do against any opposing player, none of the guys on this team have that type of personality. Ndamukong Suh has always and will always say that his job is to get into the backfield, hit, sack, or just disrupt and wreak havoc in the backfield. Now you tell me is there any defensive player in the entire NFL that doesn’t have those goals, not only to be a problem for the other team had to deal with, but ultimately so they can win that game. Is there a crime in that? The media even tried to bait Suh along with Kyle Vanden Bosch and Cliff Averill into saying that they were going to target Tony Romo’s ribs leading up to the game between those two teams. Ndamukong Suh said straight up that he wasn’t the type of player (i.e. Dante Hall I believe was the Washington Redskins one week earlier that openly said he would try to hurt Tony Romo’s ribs and Felix Jones shoulder) who targets another player’s weakness. Then he added besides if I am fortunate enough to sack Tony Romo needs feel his weight (300 pounds specifically) and know he was there (or something to that effect) which I respect much more than I do Dante Hall’s comments. Yet Ndamukong get called out as being a dirty player and described as a player that intends to injure fellow NFL football players, which is a hilarious compared to other NFL professionals like Dante Hall, whom admittedly have that intention in mind. In fact Dante Hall said he was going to bag his coat to let him blitz Tony Romo on the Cowboys first possession.

Okay sports fans I hope all of you have an enjoyable rest of your NFL season, and good luck to the Atlanta Falcons (except if and when they meet up in the playoffs with my Lions LOL). I’m sorry that this got so lengthy, but I’m tired of hearing false accusations aimed at the Lions, for the simple reason that it’s “FASHIONABLE” this season, or at least that’s what it seems.

• Link
• Report this comment

If anyone is gullible enough to believe the lies fabricated by the too neurotic, melodramatic, drama queens (Todd McClure and Roddy White) then I suspect your mammy’s dipped your pacifiers in the moonshine much too long. All you need to do is look at the film from yesterdays game, read the body language of the rest of the Atlanta Falcons football players, and arriving training staff (whom were all very close to Matt Ryan) and it should be clear that none of the accusations by those two sissified girly boys even happened. For these two drama craving lowlifes to create such ridiculous and obviously untruthful statements, (especially with the amount of distance between the two players when they claim these things were said) suggest only one thing… psychological intervention is of dire need in their pitiful little imaginary lives.

And for Jeff Schultz to run with this story and publish it in this hack of a media outlet without first verifying any truth to it shows his lack of journalistic professionalism. If the editor of this newspaper (or whatever form of media outlet that is) doesn’t fire Jeff Schultz after viewing the actions of the players involved in yesterdays game, then he has absolutely no credibility either. I have included the link to an interesting article and the actual video from yesterdays game if anyone without tunnel vision is interested in the actual truth. I don’t know about you people, but most of the rest of the world actually verifies something before they take a chance on slandering another persons character and potential livelihood.

http://www.prideofdetroit.com/2011/10/24/2509929/matt-ryan-injury-cliff-avril-ndamukong-suh-taunt

• Link
• Report this comment

Stop the D**m whinning it is part of the game today’s players cry too much if you want to do something about kick his A** on the field but I forgot the Falcons do not have anybody to do it on the offensive line because he was a man amongst boys. Roddy is so use to those soft A** players he play with everyweek I wished we had the same type nasty and physical players we would not get our A** kicked so much up an down the field.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jeff L,

Todd McClure is a 10+ year veteran center who never says more than 5 words at the time. Your claim that he is one of two “neurotic, melodramatic, drama queenS” is so unfounded and self-serving that it makes you look stupid. Now personally I think that McClure heard EXACTLY what he said he heard, as he had no reason whatsoever to say that after a victory unless it was categorically true. I also think Roddy needs to keep his mouth shut and regain his form from last year and help the team into the playoffs. If anyone is being a drama queen here, it’s YOU. Read your post again. Statements like “I suspect your mammy’s dipped your pacifiers in the moonshine much too long” and “those two sissified girly boys” and “psychological intervention is of dire need in their pitiful little imaginary lives” and “this hack of a media outlet” speaks more towards your using a public forum to spew vitriol and embarass yourself FAR more than anything Schultz or White or McCure could have said to “slander another persons character and potential livelihood”. Get a grip man.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jeff L,

Man, you are slandering yourself with your comments, as follows:

“He, nor any other Lions player hit people below the knees, blindside defenseless players, or anything else that could cause severe injuries”.

Did you not see the “tackle” put on our fullback Ovie Mughelli by Louis Delmas? Went for the knee from the start.

• Link
• Report this comment

[...] to talk about the poor taste shown by Ndamukong Suh (no friend to quarterbacks) and Cliff Avril. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: „I had respect for Suh before the game,” [Todd] McClure said. „But when Matt was [...]

• Link
• Report this comment