The NFL announced Ndamukong Suh's punishment for his vicious takedown of Jake Delhomme during the Lions-Browns preseason game last week. The verdict? A $7,500 fine and no suspension.
I learned of this news while listening to 97.1 The Ticket on my way back to Ann Arbor. They teased Suh being suspended by taking a dramatic pause before saying he was merely fined. That was expected and came as no surprise, but I literally burst out laughing when I heard that he was docked only $7,500.
With how concerned the NFL has been about protecting quarterbacks, I am shocked that Suh's fine was so small. It'd be one thing if a no-name player on the roster bubble was hit with this fine, as that would be a somewhat decent chunk of their pay. For Suh, though, this is a man that inked a $40 million guaranteed contract a month ago. This is pocket change for him, so the small fine was pretty surprising to me.
At the end of the day, I'm sure Eric Mangini and others will continue to fume about this behind closed doors. To me, though, the $7,500 fine showsthat the NFL didn't think the hit was all that big of a deal. The fine was basically the NFL's way of saying, "Hey, this is a warning. As much as you like to hunt quarterbacks, you can't be that reckless."
While the hit provided an interesting storyline for the final week of the preseason and showed how vicious Suh can be, in hindsight it wasn't a big deal at all, at least not in the eyes of the NFL based on their punishment.