INTO THE LION'S DEN

Pack Preps to Face the Cowardly Lion

 

 

Beware the dreaded trap game.

If there was ever a time or a game that qualified as a trap the Packers upcoming Sunday Night game against the 4 -8 Detroit Lions would be it. The Lions season is over ensuring they will not have back to back winning seasons since the Barry Sanders era.

The Lions are coming off a bitter defeat at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts after rookie sensation QB Andrew Luck rolled out and flipped a short pass to a wide open Donnie Avery to ice the Lions 35 – 33 on the last play of the game with no time showing on the clock. While the Colts have been reborn with Luck it seems as if all Detroit’s luck has been bad.

Explaining or even understanding Detroit’s backslide is difficult. Last year they were the new kid on the block and bullied, clawed and literally stomped their way into the playoffs. The leader of this deviant pack is DT Ndamukong Suh who is rapidly living up to his title of the dirtiest player in the NFL. Suh has been fined for as many transgressions as he has made sacks. Last year, a stomp on the Packers Evan Dietrich-Smith’s arm. This year, a kick to Texan QB Matt Schaub’s nether region, an area where no man wants to take a kick. Once again Suh puts on an unrepentant face and his hollow lack of contrition for his act.

Suh’s act has worn very thin, and it’s time to call him out for what he truly is – a filthy, dirty player, a thug in cleats who if it weren’t for football, would be hired muscle or a leg breaker for an underworld element.

Suh is that dirty. There have been tough, mean, hard-nosed players in the NFL that played with a white hot fury and rage that could barely be contained…Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, ‘Mean’ Joe Greene, Reggie White and James Harrison all spring to mind. Butkus is a great comparison. Butkus was one of the most feared players to ever patrol the middle linebacker position and terrified quarterbacks and running backs alike. Receivers who dared to run a crossing route over the middle suddenly grew alligator arms when Butkus was in the vicinity. NFL Films still plays clips of Butkus in his prime grabbing a running back, picking him up off his feet while the poor sap’s legs will still churning helplessly in the air and then driving him into the turf.

That’s where the play ended. And therein lies the difference.

No one is so naïve as to believe a choirboy image of nay man who ever played on the offensive or defensive line. But when it comes to crossing the line not just occasionally but routinely Suh is right up alongside Ben Davidson, Conrad Dobler and Jack Tatum in the Hall of Shame section dedicated to dirty players. Dobler would literally claw and bite at anything in a pile. Former Cardinal QB Jim Hart once said that after he was sacked he felt a stinging pain in his forearm and as he was extricated from the pile the pain was being delivered by Dobler, his teammate. Former teammate and now broadcaster Dan Dierdorf would excuse himself from Dobler’s antics. Even when the play was over, especially when the play was over the shenanigans that ensued were Dobler’s stock in trade.

The Raiders Ben Davidson was once the single most hated man in Kansas City. With his famous handlebar moustache, gangly height and a gravely baritone voice Davidson looked more like a biker and behaved more like a felon on the field. In the glory days of the AFL the rivalry between the Raiders and the Chiefs was born from both clubs being very good teams but the shot over the bow that triggered a lingering hatred that exists to this day was fired when Davidson chased down the Chiefs QB Len Dawson, wrapped him up and callously slammed him in a pseudo-wrestling move that landed Dawson on his head. So violent was the play that the Chiefs mild-mannered WR Otis Taylor raced up and slugged Davidson from the blind side that touched off a donnybrook that saw both benches empty as fists and accusations flew. Davidson was absolutely unrepentant for his acts throughout his career.

All anyone ever needed to know about the Raiders Jack Tatum could be found in the title of his book. His biography was “They Call Me Assassin” and Tatum did his damndest to live up to the self-proclaimed title. Tatum was a defensive back and his calling card was a clothesline forearm delivered to the blindsided head of a hapless receiver. More often than not Tatum would eschew the form tackle to deliver a punishing blow to an opponent’s head that was designed less to separate the ball from the receiver than the receiver from his senses. The Patriots promising WR Darryl Stingley was left paralyzed after a Tatum tackle, crumpling to the ground lifelessly and never walked again.

Hard hitting a tough play has been the attraction and appeal of the NFL, and entities such as NFL Films have glorified and exploited these bell ringing shots over the years until they have become a part of the very fabric of the NFL shield. The NFL is somewhere between ancient history’s Roman Coliseum that pitted Christians against lions and the futuristic movie “Rollerball” where kill shots and death blows were scored.

Suh is an unrepentant bully who is making a career of such antics. Only in his 3^rd year of pro ball Suh has been fined and suspended more than any other player in the time he has been in the league. After witnessing Suh thrust his foot into Schaub’s groin Suh’s actions are not just dirty, they are cowardly. Suh does not play to make a play, he plays to hurt someone. In his rookie year he yanked the facemask Browns QB Jake Delhomme until his helmet was almost backwards and also bodyslammed Bears QB Jay Cutler headfirst into the turf, a move reminiscent of the Packers Charles Martin’s shameful planting of Bears QB Jim McMahon before the Pack wised up, smartened up, toughened up and learned disciple.

Discipline… playing on the edge of physical but with restraint.

It’s not like the, Lions are lacking in some star power. WR Calvin ‘Megatron’ Johnson’s name always comes up when discussing the best wideouts in the game. Matthew Stafford is no slouch, but he has a propensity for being scatter armed at times. Michal Leshoure is a competent back and the Lions boast one of the best defensive lines in football. The Lions front four of Suh, Cliff Avril, Jason Vanden Bosch and Nick Fairley are every bit as stout as the 49ers or Giants.

So why can’t Detroit win?

It goes right to the top and cuts all the way through. Head Coach Jim Schwartz is a poor man’s Jim Harbaugh. Fiery, explosive and volatile Schwartz looked like he had the Lions pointed on the right track. But somewhere after his now famous nuclear meltdown with the Niners Harbaugh last year when his feelings got hurt when Harbaugh pushed him (or not) too hard (or not) the Lions have been in total free-fall. At the time the Lions were flying high and heady with success. But at the first sign of trouble they collapsed like a soufflé.

Schwartz’s rants have become mindless background white noise and instead of instilling a culture of discipline and restraint the Lions have become the obnoxious neighbors that have to be tolerated but seldom respected. Suh’s antics exist because he plays in an atmosphere that allows it. The NFL will hit Suh in the pocketbook for his stupidity and yet Schwartz stands idly by with a “That’s my boy” smirk on his face as he vainly pleads his case on his man-child’s behalf.

Suh is undoubtedly talented. The cumulative effect on his team is taxing. The Lions have lost whatever respect they were building and even the refs have caught on to the extracurricular nonsense. Much like the old Philadelphia Flyers in the Broad Street Bullies era the Lions get away with more fouls simply because they commit more. For the Lions penalties, cheap shots and after the whistle blows are routine and a few will slip through the radar.

Schaub was incensed about Suh’s kick taking to the Twitter airwaves to take his shot at Suh by tweeting that he wouldn’t want Suh as a teammate and that, in his opinion, Suh was not “…Texan-worthy”… So how does the Detroit brass respond?  All innocence offended DC Gunther Cunningham responded by saying “"What is a Texan, anyhow?"

Cunningham continued his tirade directly at Schaub by saying "You never make derogatory statements about another player and another team. If you say that, then say it behind closed doors and keep it that way. But you don't come out in the paper and start saying things like that.

"And, you know, I'm sure Matt's a great guy and he got caught up in the emotions. And I'll forgive him for it — this time."

Or at least until some of the juvenile delinquents he employs steps out of line – or on another body part of an opponent. Dennis Allen stepped into the Raiders sloppy penalty-filled hell hole and has demanded accountability. Mike McCarthy went through the same thing in Green Bay. Schwartz apparently has not gotten the message and has substituted and sanctioned dirty play in lieu of the big play.

The Lions would love nothing more than to drag the Packers down the toilet with them. They have nothing left to play for and even pride is a stretch. If there was pride in the Lions, it’s been lost in all the dirt swirling around them.

This will be a good tune up game for the Packers. They have to be wary of overlooking the Lions, but when the Pack establishes itself as the better team, and they will, the Lions will have their roar reduced to a whimper. Or a whine.

It will be all over Jim Schwartz’s sullen face as he sulks on the sidelines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   GREEN BAY 31  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Detroit  10