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On Sunday morning, FOX's Jay Glazer made a pretty damning report on Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. In the wake of Suh's low block in Week 1 and the $100,000 fine he received, Glazer suggested that Suh's issues with playing within the rules are even a problem during practice. Specifically, via Pro Football Talk, Glazer said that Suh "gives guys the business" and will "slam a guy’s head against the ground" or "stomp on a guy."
I personally shrugged off the report considering beat writers watch practice every day and have never mentioned anything of the sort. Granted, practices aren't completely open during the season, but even fans can watch the Lions practice during training camp and nobody has ever suggested that Suh is out there taking cheap shots on his teammates.
On Monday, Lions head coach Jim Schwartz emphatically denied Glazer's report.
Schwartz on Suh: "I can say unequivocally that he's never slammed anyone's head to the ground or stomped anyone."
— Carlos Monarrez (@cmonarrez) September 16, 2013
Schwartz on Suh report: "That's unequivocally off base." #Lions
— Tom Leyden (@TomLeyden) September 16, 2013
Glazer has a solid track record of reporting, and it's clear he's well connected in the NFL world. However, I really don't buy his report on Suh for a second. Aside from the lack of evidence that anything like this has happened from people who watch practice every day, are we really to believe that Suh's teammates would vote him captain if he was really behaving like this?
To me, this seems like nothing more than another attempt to pile on Suh after a week of negative headlines. It's entirely fair to question his conduct on the field during games given what we've seen, but suggesting that he's taking cheap shots on teammates in practice is pretty ridiculous.