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It appears we've reached the point in Ndamukong Suh's career where every single snap with him on the field is going to be reviewed for potential wrongdoing, and not even by the NFL. It looks as though fans and the media are going to take the time to watch every little thing Suh does on the field on the off chance that he made an illegal play that didn't grab the NFL's attention.
Case in point: Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio posted a story on Saturday night about an "elbow to the head maneuver" by Suh on Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Eric Winston. Suh was not fined for anything that happened in the Cardinals game, and the only noteworthy thing involving him was the cheap shot he received from a Cardinals lineman. There was no fine for that, but PFT reports that the NFL is now reviewing the following play involving Suh for potential discipline:
Here's the best part of this whole story:
For reasons not currently known, the Cardinals didn’t alert the NFL to the play. That’s normally the way the the league office becomes aware of fairly obscure incidents. In this particular case, it would have been nearly impossible for the NFL to catch the quick and sudden blow to the head without a head’s up from the team whose player was on the receiving end of the illegal hit.
I can think of a couple reasons: maybe the Cardinals didn't find what Suh did to be worth alerting the NFL, and perhaps Winston simply didn't care about Suh attempting to shed his block. Things happen in the trenches of a football game. Clearly Suh has the microscope on him and has to be extra careful, but the fact that this was a non-story until PFT pointed it out says a lot.
Also, I find it pretty funny that the follow-up piece on PFT was titled "Opposing players are getting fed up with Suh." This was despite the fact that the only quote in the story came from an anonymous player who said that he will be "interested to see how things go" for Suh the rest of the season. Yeah, he sounds really fed up.
In any case, I do understand why this is a story. Even if it did come via a thorough re-watch of every play involving Suh, the fact is that his track record has put the microscope squarely on him for potential illegal plays. However, it seems a little ridiculous that the NFL is now relying on PFT for a heads up on a play that was deemed worthy of a review nearly a week after the fact. And it will really seem ridiculous if Suh is fined again after the Cardinals lineman didn't receive any discipline for going low on him.
Perhaps the worst part of this whole situation is that Suh has caused his overall play to be overlooked because of a few missteps over the years. Right now, he is the top-graded defensive tackle on Pro Football Focus, and he is playing at an extremely high level. Hopefully that will start to become the main story with Suh going forward, although I doubt it.