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Falcons players accused the Lions' Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril of taunting Matt Ryan after he suffered an injury during Sunday's game. Both Suh and Avril have since denied the accusations.
After the Detroit Lions lost the Atlanta Falcons, there were reports from Atlanta players that a couple Detroit defensive linemen - Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril - were taunting quarterback Matt Ryan when he went down with an injury. The Falcons' Roddy White would go on to say that the Lions were kicking Ryan's foot when he suffered an ankle injury and saying things like "get the cart", referring to the cart that takes away players unable to get off the field on their own power. Well, Cliff Avril has responded to the accusations and he claims it didn't happen:
Come on I'm not in the business of hurting not one guy on the field... I would never taunt anyone on an injury... But if we want to talk about dirty players look at the film and see who prides themselves on being durty...
Who knows if something happened that was missed, at this point? Only the players on the field do, and in the case of White - we do know that he's not shy at all about getting into it with anyone and everyone. He's got a long history of Twitter feuds - calling out newspapers, journalists and the 49ers' Alex Smith for some reason - and his word is as good as you think it should be, knowing that. After the jump, though, we've got a video of Ryan's ankle injury and, to me, there's a staggering lack of taunting and ankle kicking going on.
During the Detroit Lions' 23-16 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had his foot stepped on by a teammate, causing his ankle to bend in ways ankles should not bend. He had to go to the locker room for treatment, but returned after missing only two plays on offense.
After the game, Falcons players were not too fond of a couple Lions defensive players for allegedly treating an injured Matt Ryan like he was road kill [via AJC]:
... when Ryan was down, wreathing in pain, Lions defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril taunted him, according to the Falcons.
"I had respect for Suh before the game," McClure said. "But when Matt was on the ground, the things he was saying and the trash he was talking was definitely uncalled for. There are certain things you don’t do. [He said], ‘Get the cart’ and several other things that I can’t repeat."
Roddy White said, "I lost a whole lot of respect for 90 [Suh] today, and also 92 [Cliff Avril], the [bleep] they were doing when Matt got hurt. That was unacceptable. … Like 92 was kicking [Ryan’s] feet, saying, ‘Get him off the field.’ We don’t do stuff like that. We don’t rally over guys when they get hurt. It was just inappropriate behavior. I mean, ‘Get the cart’? Are you serious? Come on. When you compete, you never want to see a guy get hurt."
Hmmm. "Get the cart" isn't bad at all, so if the Falcons players "can't repeat" what Suh and Avril said because it was "unacceptable" or whatever, that doesn't sound like a very fair thing to so loosely divulge to the media.
UPDATE: As for the serious accusation that Avril was "kicking Ryan's feet" while he was on the ground injured? Whelp, we've checked the video and that's simply not true.
Ndamukong Suh: Dirty Play Accusations 'Unsettling'; Fight Would Have Happened If True
Ndamukong Suh has had quite a few accusations being thrown around about his dirty play, but the Detroit Lions defensive lineman says that simply isn't the case. In fact, in light of the allegations that he and fellow lineman Cliff Avril did anything dirty following Matt Ryan's injury in Sunday's game, Suh says the allegations are simply "unsettling."
Suh, along with Avril, are being accused of taunting the Atlanta Falcons quarterback. Suh denied those allegations while talking to the media on Monday though and, as transcribed by Philip Zaroo, he isn't exactly happy.
If Suh had did what he's being accused of doing -- literally kicking Ryan as he was down -- the Lions defensive lineman says that the scene on the field would not have been pretty.
This probably won't be the end of other teams trying to make excuses for Suh's play, but at least he seems to believe he's been justified in all of his on-field actions to this point -- and the video evidence has yet to prove otherwise, either.
Oct 24 5:05p by Scott Schroeder