Yesterday after Ndamukong Suh participated in his first training camp practice as a member of the Lions, he talked about a variety of subjects, including the contract situation that resulted in him missing four full days of practice. While Suh praised his agents for their work -- they did get him $40 million guaranteed, after all -- he also apologized for not making good on his intention of being in camp on time.
Obviously, I wanted to be in camp on time, as I’ve said previously, I wanted to be on time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t, so I apologize for that. As we all know, it’s a business and my agents did a great job of taking care of that for me because that’s what I hired them for. They did everything I asked and took care of it the way I wanted it to be. That’s beyond the point now. I’m here in camp and I’m excited to be here.
Suh didn't have to apologize, but obviously he feels a little bad about how things played out, so he felt compelled to say he's sorry. I respect that quite a bit, because he easily could have just moved on and been done with it. Instead, though, he apologized for not living up to what he originally said, and he also said that he didn't have any hard feelings about some of the nasty things Lions fans said about him during his holdout.
On what people were saying about the deal dragging on
"You’ve got to look past those things. Obviously, I know the fans were excited and wanted me to be in camp. They’re just eager for a team to win and I don’t fault them for that. It’s unfortunate that some things were said. I’m not going to hold it against them. I’m not going to hold a grudge on it. It is what it was. I’m looking forward and I’m happy to be on this field."
Throughout his post-practice interview it seemed as though Suh wanted to just focus on football, as evidenced by answers like this:
On what he’s going to treat himself to now that he’s signed his contract
"I’m treating myself to getting on this field and getting ready."
Considering that all of you are probably just as sick of talking about contracts as both myself and Suh, I'm hoping this will be the last post on the subject moving forward. What's done is done, and now it's time to start worrying about football, not agents and holdouts.