Insult to Injury

I am a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Houston Texans, but even I have to admit that we really should not have won our Thanksgiving day game.  If the Detroit coach had not thrown his red flag on a touchdown that was already subject to automatic review, the runner would have been ruled down and the touchdown negated.  Since he illegally demanded a review, weird NFL rules earned him a penalty and the automatic review never happened.

Now the NFL plans to review a play in which the Lion’s star defensive tackle  Ndamukong Suh kicked Houston quarterback Matt Schaub in the groin. 

Suh was not flagged on the play.  In fact, it was one of the few plays in which he was actually stopped – he was falling or already on his back when his left foot hit Schaub in the groin.

NFL executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson said the league will review Suh's kick and that "everything is on the table" when it comes to potential punishment.

"It didn't look good," Anderson told ESPN.

"It didn't seem to be a natural football move," Anderson said. "We're going to withhold judgment until we see all of the angles. We'll look at that on Monday as part of the process. It just appeared to be out of the ordinary, and so we're going to take a close look at it."

Suh has been fined for dirty moves in each of the last two years, including a two-game suspension for intentionally stomping the arm of a Green Bay lineman last Thanksgiving, and that history will color the league’s opinion.

"If a player has been disciplined in the last two seasons, 2010 and 2011, in this case and that discipline has either been affirmed or reduced, which means that he was still determined to have been a violator, then that will certainly factor into our thinking as we look at a current offense," Anderson said.

"Because if you're a repeat offender, you really are not entitled to the benefit of the doubt. That will factor in as part of the thinking in this case and any others where there's repeat offender presence."