Clinton Portis doesn’t approve of the way Ndamukong Suh treated Washington running back Alfred Morris in Week 1. The Miami Dolphins defensive tackle looked to potentially be up to his old bad-boy tricks again on Sunday when he appeared to knee Morris in the head, knocking his helmet off.
Morris didn’t really do much in response, other than to pretty much say it wasn’t cool of Suh, who wasn’t penalized by the league in hindsight.
Ndamukong Suh won't be penalized for 'contact' with Alfred Morris – http://t.co/Dey7nbt76r pic.twitter.com/p6KjAmEbqp
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 14, 2015
Portis says he would have responded, shall we say, a bit differently?
“I just would love to be in that situation,” Portis said on ESPN 980, via the Washington Post. “Why didn’t guys play that way when I was on the field? I wish a guy would have. I would have dove at the back of Suh’s knees so quick and got up and just probably choked him out. I definitely wouldn’t have let him get away with that. But again, Alfred Morris is a different guy than myself.”
Portis thinks players these days don’t know how to stand up to a bully like Suh.
“Guys give this facade of being tough and, ‘Oh man, I’m the man and don’t try me,’ and you know, they’re really not,” Portis said. “I don’t think Suh is, you know, that tough of a player. I think he’s a great player though.”
To be fair, it’s hard to agree with Portis that Suh’s tough-guy persona is a facade. Since his college days, Suh has been the baddest dude on the field, no matter who else is playing. He is not only the most physically imposing defensive tackle in the league, but he’s also the nastiest player — consistently — of this generation.
He really is “that tough of a player,” regardless of what Portis thinks.
On the other hand, perhaps the next time Suh does something on the field like what he did to Morris in Week 1, someone needs to step up and knock the big guy down for a change.