T.J. Lang Says Suh Challenged Him To A Fight During Week 17 Game [VIDEO]
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Green Bay Packers guard T.J. Lang has tangled with Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh a number of times, including in Week 3 and in Week 17 this season.
In the second meeting, the last game of the regular season, Suh appeared to step on the leg of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Though Lang did not see the alleged stomp, the reaction of Rodgers prompted Lang to get after Suh as the game continued.
"From my vantage point, I turned around, I saw Aaron down, and I just tried to grab [Suh] to make sure he couldn't land on him or anything," Lang said. "A couple plays later we got into it a little bit. Aaron told me that - he was complaining that his calf hurt, that he got stepped on, which, for me, I've got to listen to my guy, my quarterback.
"We got into it after a block and just kind of started talking a little bit," Lang continued. "I was telling him - he was challenging me to a fight, and I'm not afraid of him ... It was all part of just the frustration, I think. I'm not going to say that I shut him down the whole game because we were double-teaming him 90 percent of the time; you'd be idiotic not to do that, the type of player he is. I think he was just frustrated that we were beating them and we were kind of getting after him a little bit."
Lang laughed as he recalled the type of trash talk he heard from Suh.
"I think just a combination of things, he just kind of snapped," Lang said. "He started saying some things that I won't say on air. You can't."
The way Suh behaved that game, Lang noted, stood in sharp contrast to how he acted when the teams met earlier in the season. In that game, Lang said, Suh seemed like a man trying to reform his image.
"He was helping guys up off the ground, he was, 'Good block, man,'" Lang recalled. "He's talking to Aaron, helped him up after he hit him or sacked him, something that was just kind of like 'What is going on here?'
"I don't know what was going on," Lang added. "It seemed like, from watching the film, that he was kind of trying to change his ways because, obviously, free agent coming up, trying to stay out of trouble the best that he could."
In addition to seeing different sides of Suh in those two games, Lang got another perspective on the four-time Pro Bowl selection when the two worked out together for the TV show "American Muscle." Meeting Suh off the field was an odd experience for Lang.
"That was awkward," Lang admitted.
"He seemed normal, and we talked about football, and we talked about the battles that we've had the last couple years," Lang continued. "It just kind of threw me off a little bit because he didn't seem like the type of guy that he acts like he is on the field."
Long considered a dirty player, Suh had largely cleaned up his act this season until the apparent stomp of Rodgers. He was initially suspended for Detroit's playoff game, but the suspension was overturned.
