Ndamukong Suh won his appeal of the 1-game suspension after stepping on the leg of Aaron Rodgers in Week 17, a decision that surprised some but was expected by others. It was during that appeal hearing that Suh whipped out an interesting excuse for why the incident happened and how he didn’t know that it was Rodgers, not the ground, that he was stepping on.
During appeal, Ndamukong Suh said his feet were numb from cold and he couldn’t tell difference between Aaron Rodgers’ feet and the ground.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 31, 2014
Hearing officer Ted Cottrell didn’t buy any of it:
Although I accept that your feet may have been cold on a late December day in Green Bay, it is difficult for me to believe that you did not feel Aaron Rodgers’ leg under you as you stepped on him twice. While you may not have consciously intended to cause injury to the opposing player that you stepped on, I nonetheless believe that you could have avoided—and had the responsibility to avoid—making such dangerous contact with your opponent’s leg—twice. Your conduct was a clear violation of the Playing Rules and was outside the normal course of the game of football. It must be emphasized that illegal acts that jeopardize the safety of other players, as was certainly the case here, will not be tolerated in this League
However, Cottrell still elected to favor on the side of Suh and allow the controversial Lions lineman to play in their Wild Card game this week. It is particularly interesting that Cottrell basically called Suh a liar but still gave him the appeal victory.
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