The game of gridiron football is inherently one of the most physical and brutal genres of professional sports, so when a player somehow manages to stand out for being particularly cruel, it’s often scarred into the memory of fans and players alike. Having garnered a reputation for twisting, rolling, and even stomping on the body parts of opposing players, the former defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh, is a shining example of this.
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In addition to being one of the most prominent tacklers of his time, Suh’s larger-than-life, 6-foot-4, 313-pound frame made him one of the most fearsome players in NFL history.
In light of the 2010 Defensive Rookie of the Year having recently announced his retirement, his former teammate and co-host of the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast, Will Compton, reflected on one of the terrifying instances in which he nearly got on Suh’s bad side.
“We were driving him to the airport to drop him off,” Compton explained, “And I was kind of jabbing him a bit about the Aaron Rodgers situation.”
Suh infamously stepped onto the ankle and calf area of the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, making sure to put as much of his weight onto it as possible. Rodgers had left the contest earlier with an injury related to that very same calf.
“After the game, he was saying that he didn’t do it. ‘The man upstairs knows what happened.’ I was like, ‘Suh, so, the man upstairs, we can both agree that you stomped on him.'”
Apparently, that’s not what Suh wanted to hear. “He didn’t want to play about it,” Compton recalled. “He just turns back, looks, and goes, ‘We can pull the car over and I can show you what I meant, if you want to do that.'”
Compton promptly corrected himself. “Oh, no, we don’t have to talk about it anymore.” Laughing through the fear, he reaffirmed Suh’s original claim. “The man upstairs, right?”
Will Compton recalls Ndamukong Suh’s collegiate career at Nebraska
The former Lion also took the time to reflect on Suh’s earlier days at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he suggests that the defensive tackle should have been given a Heisman trophy. According to Compton, “Mark Ingram is walking around with his Heisman trophy right now.”
He also shared another story about a time when they shared the field together while playing against Texas. Simply put, Compton had a choice, he could listen to his assignment in the playbook, or he could listen to Suh.
“He looked back at me one time, like, I’m thinking, alright, I got the A gap on this one, they are in the I formation. I’m a young buck, head is spinning… And he looks back and goes ‘I’m taking the A gap, you go B,’ and I’m just thinking, man, this is f**ked.”
Considering the amount of both fear and respect that he had for Suh, it’s safe to say that Compton filled in the B gap on that play. For better or worse, Suh left a legacy that football fans won’t soon forget.
He may have been a bit grimy, if not outright dirty, but he still managed to personify the grit and tenacity that it takes to become one of the most feared players in all of football.
