Ndamukong Suh, Lions deserve each other

Ndamukong Suh held a Q&A with some of his 307,861 Twitter followers a couple of days ago. The good news is he didn’t kick any of them in groin.
The bad news is he avoided questions about his latest misstep. Though if you’re wondering why he keeps making them, the answer has become obvious.

Ndamukong Suh, with his latest Thanksgiving Day kick, has lost control with the Lions. Or is it the Lions that have lost control of Suh? (AP Photo)

Suh plays for the Lions. He needs to get out of Detroit, or get the Detroit out of him. If he doesn’t, nothing will stop one of the most amazing falls in NFL history.
Think about it. Two years ago, Suh was an All-Pro rookie and a Madison Avenue darling. Nike, Chrysler, Subway and Dick’s Sporting Goods wanted him to peddle their goods.
Now Suh would be lucky if Al’s Pest Control wanted to film him stomping cockroaches. His peers voted him the NFL’s dirtiest player in a Sporting News survey. Fans named him the league’s least-liked player in an E-Poll Market Research poll.
The remarkable thing is Suh didn’t kill dogs or accidentally shoot himself in the leg or slap his girlfriend. His crash is almost completely game-related … and the only thing deteriorating as fast as his image is his actual football performance.
What a waste. The guy looked like the next Deacon Jones. Now he’s one Thanksgiving away from working fulltime for Vince McMahon.
Most of the blame goes to Suh, who has single-handedly started a new holiday tradition. Millions of people used to sit around and watch football players eat a John Madden turkey. Now they watch Suh turn into one.
Last year he stomped on a Green Bay lineman. This year he kicked Matt Schaub in the groin. The NFL started reviewing the incident Monday. Expect Suh to be suspended a game or two. Whatever it is, I just want to hear his explanation.
UPDATE: Suh not suspended by the league
Last year, Suh initially said he was just trying to regain his balance as he pranced on Evan Dietrich-Smith. This year he might say Schaub had jock itch and he was just offering some relief with his left cleat.
“You don’t want a player like that,” Schaub told a Houston radio station. “The stuff that he stands for and the type of player he is, that’s not Houston Texan worthy. That’s not what we’re about.”
It is what the Lions are about, which is a big part of Suh’s problem. Every team takes chances on players with “character issues,” but Jim Schwartz has turned Detroit into a mini Devil’s Island.
Nick Fairley had more arrests (two) than sacks (one) following his rookie season. Mikel Leshoure was suspended for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, while Johnny Culbreath was busted for marijuana possession.
That 2011 draft class just added to the deterioration of discipline. You could see it in all its glory in a crucial game against New Orleans last December, when the Lions committed three personal fouls after the whistle.
Brandon Pettigrew was fined $25,000 for shoving an official. Titus Young was flagged for punching the Saints’ Malcolm Jenkins. He did it right in front of a referee. It was a week after Thanksgiving.
“Didn’t you learn anything from Ndamukong Suh?” exclaimed Cris Collinsworth on NBC.
He learned from Schwartz, whose most famous coaching move was almost getting into a fight with Jim Harbaugh last year during the postgame handshake.
The Lions were the NFL’s third-most penalized team last year. Things have gotten better this year, since they now are only No. 7 on the list. No matter the rank, Schwartz has always denied there’s a discipline problem.
He’s tried to instill an aggressive mentality, and it helped resurrect a franchise that went 0-16 just four years ago. Somewhere in there, that chip on the shoulder went to players’ heads.
When things go wrong, they lose composure. There aren’t enough mature veterans to police the antics, and Schwartz sure isn’t setting much of an example.
Suh was never known as a dirty player at Nebraska. Thanksgivings usually passed without Big 12 quarterbacks grabbing their crotches and doubling over in pain. Maybe there was always a bully lurking inside him, but the Cornhuskers knew how to control it. In Detroit, the coach can’t control himself.
As bad as Suh was on Thanksgiving, the biggest bonehead move came when Schwartz threw his challenge flag while Houston’s Justin Forsett broke an 81-yard touchdown run.
Forsett was clearly down and the automatic review would have nullified the play. But coaches aren’t allowed to challenge scoring plays. If they do, the replay is negated and the team gets a 15-yard penalty.
It’s a stupid rule, but officials remind coaches of it before every game. Schwartz simply couldn’t control himself.
“I was so mad,” he said, “I had the flag out before he got to the end zone.”
At least Schwartz didn’t have Suh stomp on the ref. Considering the Lions are 4-7 and fading fast, we may not have Schwartz to kick around much longer.
That might not save Suh, since first he must be mature enough to save himself. But rival quarterbacks and their concerned wives know one thing.
Suh needs to be stopped before next Thanksgiving, and Schwartz isn’t the man to do it.

Raiders report: Terrelle Pryor's opportunity could be near

ALAMEDA, Calif.—In light of how well second-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick has played for the 49ers in place of injured regular Alex Smith, it begs the question: Should the Raiders take a similar look at second-year quarterback Terrelle Pryor at some point this season?
First-year coach Dennis Allen has not activated Pryor for any of Oakland’s 11 games this season, perhaps fearful of finding himself in a circus-like atmosphere like the one he witnessed with Denver last season, when Tim Tebow took over for Kyle Orton. The Raiders still are in the playoff hunt, even though they are 3-8. Yet, once they are mathematically eliminated, it seems like the wise thing to do is take a long look at Pryor to see if he is a better option than veteran Carson Palmer or even worth keeping on the roster beyond this season.
Pryor has not attempted a pass in a regular-season game for the Raiders in his two seasons. He did some impressive things during exhibition games this season, especially with his feet, keeping alive plays and running for positive yardage. The concerns about Pryor are his accuracy and ability to perform at a high level on a consistent basis.
Still, the Raiders need to give him a chance to show what he can do. He can’t get much better without game experience. Palmer turns 33 toward the end of this season, so it’s at the point where the Raiders need to groom a replacement anyway.

'Superhero' Giants player Martellus Bennett catches fan who fell from stands after game

The Blue Ninja? New York Giants tight end Martellus Bennett is worthy of such a nickname after pulling off a superhero feat Sunday night.
Bennett caught a fan who was falling from the MetLife Stadium stands following the Giants’ 38-10 victory over the Green Bay Packers. Bennett was on his way to the locker room when he saw the man topple over a railing about 15 feet from the ground.

Martellus Bennett said his "Spidey-sense" alerted him to a potential problem in the stands. (AP Photo)

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"I was doing what I usually do, moseying to the locker room and meandering around," Bennett said, according to USA Today. "Naturally, I just wanted to step back, but I did the righteous thing and I stepped up. I caught him, I saved his life. I tapped into my inner superhero, which I do have.”
Adding to the danger: Bennett had to make the catch barehanded on a cold night in the Meadowlands. He was throwing his gloves into the stands. (Based on his 39 catches in 11 games this season, and no TDs in his last eight games, the gloves possess no superpowers.)
Bennett, a comic book enthusiast, told USA Today that he could see the scene unfolding.
"I'm usually a ninja, but my Spidey-senses told me he was going to take a fall, so I saved his life,” Bennett said.
The fan’s night did not have a storybook ending, however. New Jersey State Police led him away and booked him on undisclosed charges.
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Once the fan sorts out his legal issues, he might want to express his gratitude. Bennett has a couple of suggestions.
“He owes me his firstborn or something. Actually, I don't want that. Maybe a sandwich or something," Bennett told USA Today.

Miami Heat's Rashard Lewis cut from rotation

In the offseason, the acquisition of Rashard Lewis was seen as a significant upgrade to the Miami Heat’s thin supporting cast.

Miami Heat forward Rashard Lewis has not played a single minute in his team's last two games. (AP Photo)

He played that part through 11 games, or before he was exiled to the bench for the past two contests, Heat victories over the Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Lewis had averaged about 15 minutes per game and produced 7.2 points and 2.0 rebounds and shot better than 50 percent from the 3-point line. Still, he's been on the bench for the Heat's last 96 minutes.
"There's a lot of talent on the bench, a lot of guys that can play any given night," Lewis said, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "So you've just always got to be ready when your name is called. And when your name's not called, you've still got to be ready."
Lewis, who sat both games because of a “coach’s decision,” told the Sun Sentinel that health has not played a part in his decline in minutes, although coach Erik Spoelstra listed a cold as the reason Lewis sat out two games ago. Lewis said Spoelstra alerted him to coming changes in the bench rotation.
"He said he's going to change the lineup, the second unit for a little bit, trying to see what else he can do, work with some things, just be patient with him, just see what happens," Lewis said.

Despite tremendous will, Kevin McHale's daughter Sasha loses battle with lupus

She had her father’s long arms, his sneaky agility under the basket and his tenacious spirit. But whereas Kevin McHale preferred to bewilder defenders with a quick hook from either hand, Alexandra was far more content to pass the ball. After a game she’d check the stat sheet for her assist total, then look at her foul count. Rarely did either ever make her frown.
“She’s always been more of a team player. Her thing is defense and finding open teammates,” McHale proudly said of his daughter during the Minnesota Class AAA state tournament in 2008, when she earned honorable mention all-state honors for the Totino-Grace High School Eagles during their championship season.

Kevin McHale's daughter Sasha died on Saturday after fighting a lengthy battle with lupus. She was 23 years old. (The Star Tribune, Marlin Levinson)

She played forward, her dad’s position, wore the No. 32 that graced his back throughout his glorious Hall of Fame career with the Boston Celtics and could mimic his biting wit, his hard fouls, his footwork and those crazy fakes and fadeaway spins. Grace flowed easily through her 5 feet, 11 inches. Everyone called her Sasha, but to McHale she was daddy’s little girl.
And like him, she had a deep affection for Minnesota, its ubiquitous lakes and rolling hills and communal warmth. Her father was born and raised in the charming Northeast town of Hibbing that also produced national treasures Bob Dylan and Roger Maris. Even after the Houston Rockets lured McHale away to be their head coach following a long and colorful coaching and executive career with the Timberwolves, Sasha remained in her beloved state.
She died there on Saturday, two weeks after McHale took a leave of absence from the Rockets for personal reasons. We now know it was to be with his daughter at her home in the suburbs outside of St. Paul. Sasha was 23, the fourth of Kevin and Lynn’s five children.
Ask anyone about Sasha and they all speak of her high-pitched laugh, her joyous nature, and while some knew she was battling lupus, a chronic auto-immune disease, very few outside the family’s close circle realized how ill she had become, or how valiantly she battled its attack on her body.
Lupus is an insidious illness, its symptoms often mirroring those that haunt other diseases. It is far more common in women than men; it is believed to be caused by a combination of genetics, environment, and hormones; and there is treatment but no cure. It is unpredictable and infuriating – the immune system basically tries to destroy healthy tissue, causing chronic inflammation and immense fatigue.
Those with lupus are extremely sensitive to sunlight, and as the disease takes root, the worst thing for someone suffering from it is exposure to the sun. But who wouldn’t want to spend warm days on the shores of Lake Minnetonka? The McHales are also one of those extremely athletic families, their days and nights dominated by sports. Sasha, according to her friends, despised the way lupus had begun to transcend the essence of her core.
They say she did not become seriously ill until 2011, while studying abroad in Australia, where sun worshipping is a way of life. She returned to Minnesota, and eventually began missing classes at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she was studying liberal arts. Exhaustion started to wipe out the young woman who only a short time ago had been a varsity basketball player for three years, as exuberant on the bench as she was in the post.
"She was an outstanding basketball player and the life of the locker room," Shannon Hartinger, Sasha’s coach at Totino-Grace, told the Star Tribune. "She was a joy to be around. You could tell she loved to play basketball.
"She was like her dad, everything rolled off her back,” Hartinger added. “They were a very close family."
In the last year, Sasha fought lupus with every ounce of her being, cutting sugar from her diet, then gluten, and studying the background of any supplement known to reduce inflammation. Lupus assaulted her skin and joints, her lungs and her nervous system, but always she hit back even though the treatment (high-dose corticosteroids, potent cytotoxic drugs) can be more brutal than the symptoms.
Even when Sasha was hospitalized this month in Minneapolis, Kelvin Sampson, Houston’s head coach in McHale's absence, told reporters the situation was fluctuating. “It’s not out of the woods yet. There’s still a lot of concern, but it is improving," Sampson said. Two of Sasha’s close friends tell me they, too, believed as recently as Thanksgiving night that she would recover from this latest setback.
So much about lupus remains a mystery. Up to 90 percent of people with the disease can live a normal life span provided they have close follow-up and treatment, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. But lupus-related organ failures and deaths are on a sharp rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
McHale remains on indefinite leave from the Rockets. As of Monday afternoon the funeral arrangements were still pending, but family and friends were said to be planning a celebration of Sasha’s 23 years, to pay tribute to all she adored.
Sure to be included: the breathtaking allure of Minnesota’s lakes and its shorelines, and especially the magnetism of its gyms, where she wore her daddy’s No. 32 and played forward with his aggressive intensity, his natural grace.

Gene Chizik's rapid descent proves that Cam Newton may be Superman after all

Now that the Gene Chizik Regime has gone up in flames at Auburn, what better time to resurrect an old debating point: Is Cam Newton the greatest player in the history of college football?
Technically, that is not the old debating point. At the climax of Newton’s one and only season as a major-college starting quarterback, 2010, the question was raised about whether his was the best season any player had ever had. It was a very reasonable position then.

With Cam Newton, Gene Chizik went undefeated and won a title. Without Newton, Chizik lost his job in less than two years. (AP Photo)

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In hindsight, it’s worth a tweak.
So much worth the tweak, in fact, that it turned what was intended to be only a semi-serious analysis—tongue firmly in cheek, generously padded with robust exaggeration, the kind of tall tale connoisseurs of Deep South pigskin history would eagerly dig into—into a rigorous, detailed commentary.
It’s still funny, though.
Come on—one guy shows up, launches the program into the stratosphere, leaves, and without him said program comes screeching back to earth and shatters in the desert? Is this guy really Superman, after all? Do we have to take the whole yank-open-the-shirt-and-reveal-the-S routine seriously now? We have to look at the slouchy, pouty, closed-eyed, head-tilted interview bit as a sign of otherworldly vision and wisdom? Oh, great.
Maybe Newton isn’t Superman right now, unless he manages the same Lazarus routine with the Carolina Panthers, starting Monday night. But in college, it’s obvious now that whatever breathless superlatives heaped on him then did him no justice.
Construct for yourself the resume of the man who would be anointed Greatest Ever. Would it look anything like this?
— Arrive at a school that had not won a national championship since Eisenhower was president. Become the starter after never starting a college game other than in junior college. Win the national championship.
— Lead a team with two undefeated seasons in the previous five decades to an undefeated season.
— Win the Heisman Trophy.
— Break records for running, passing, total yardage and touchdowns in the SEC while that league is being called the best in the country, by far.
— Give your head coach more wins in that single season (14) than in his previous three seasons combined (13).
— Play your archrivals, the defending national champs, in their stadium, after they had beaten your team in the last two meetings. Beat them with a dramatic second-half comeback.
— Go out on top, as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. Watch from afar as your school goes 8-5, then 3-9; loses to your archrival by a combined 91-14; and fires that same coach with two years left on his contract.
Not even Tim Tebow did all that.
OK, so one insane, jaw-dropping, off-the-charts season does not an all-time-greatest candidate make. (It’s a safe bet that fans of his rival SEC schools would say that, while routinely referring to him as “Scam” Newton.)
No, it’s the complete and blindingly-fast disintegration of the Auburn program since Newton’s departure that seals the deal.
It’s easy to smirk at Chizik’s 19-19 record at Auburn besides that 2010 season, and the 24-38 career mark that includes the two wretched seasons at Iowa State that “earned” him the bigger gig.
It’s even easier to mock how, in the two years immediately following the greatest season in 53 years, the program not only failed to capitalize but went completely in reverse.
And to point out that in the years leading up to Newton’s fortuitous arrival, Auburn had split with one coach (Tommy Tuberville) after a sharp decline and had picked through a mighty shallow candidate pool—remember how angry some folks were that Turner Gill didn’t get the job? Yes, Turner (5-19 At Kansas) Gill—before snatching Chizik from absolutely no one’s grasp.
Here’s why what’s happening is historic. As colleague Matt Hayes points out, Auburn is going to have a hellacious time attracting top-notch candidates. It’ll have to reach for a rogue coach like Bobby Petrino. It is “the hardest job in America.” So hard that, reportedly, the school will pay Chizik and his staff more than $11 million to go away and make room for someone else.
In short: They were in a skid before Cam. They reached nirvana with Cam. They hit the skids after Cam.
It’s kind of like the Colts going 2-14 without Peyton Manning … if the Colts were still headed for 2-14 again this year.
Or, it’s kind of like Kentucky winning the national basketball title with Anthony Davis, then Davis jumping to the NBA … if Kentucky were to go to the NIT this year, then the CBI next year, then dump John Calipari.
Come to think of it, calling Cam “Superman” might damn him with faint praise. Too human. The guy was a meteor. And it’s not so much the brilliantly-lit flying object. It’s the long streak in the sky left behind.
Not exaggerating or being tongue-in-cheek about that. Or about this: Auburn had better hope it doesn’t have to wait another 53 years for its next great player.

Shots for Al Horford equal success for the Atlanta Hawks

While the offseason trade of Joe Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets meant the end of the “Core Four,” it did not mean the end of success for the Atlanta Hawks. One major reason for the team’s continued solid play is the return of Al Horford, who has taken on a bigger role since Johnson’s departure.
For the Hawks, the formula is simple: Get shots for Horford and see wins. Atlanta (7-4) has won every game in which Horford has totaled 15 or more points. He averages 11.6 points and 7.0 rebounds in three losses, while his numbers jump to 18.5 points and 10.2 rebounds in seven wins. The Hawks suffered a fourth loss, to Golden State, without Horford in the lineup.

Al Horford has played well for the Atlanta Hawks after suiting up in only 11 games last season. (AP Photo)

The law of averages would suggest that Horford, one of a small batch of talented centers in the NBA, deserves elevated touches. Yet Horford averages fewer than nine shots in losses and hoists the ball 15 times per game in wins.
He is second in shot attempts for Atlanta, almost a full three shots behind Josh Smith, but Horford continues to lead Hawks in points (16.5) and rebounds (9.3) after playing only 11 games last season because of a pectoral injury. Without him last season, the Hawks revolved around Johnson, Smith and Marvin Williams for one last time.
The group was broken up this offseason when new Atlanta general manager Danny Ferry dealt Johnson to the Nets and moved Williams to Utah. In their place, he added scorer Lou Williams, shooter Kyle Korver and defender DeShawn Stevenson.
Notice the adjective “distributor” is missing from that list. Just as they did before their recent moves, the Hawks have plenty of shoot-first players and very few playmakers. Jeff Teague runs the offense and accounts for an impressive 6.9 assists per game, but there’s no real backup point guard. Smith is a good passer, but his 3.5 turnovers negate his 3.6 assists.
With few true centers to challenge him, a player of Horford’s level demands attempts at the rim. That rationale is knocked down by the fact that Horford’s usage percentage (20.23) is lower than lesser players like Spencer Hawes and DeJaun Blair, according to Hoopdata, a theme that also affects Atlanta’s efficiency in the few avenues through which big men are known to score points.
Post-up play accounts for 9.8 percent of its offense and 0.761 points per possession are converted on the block, a below-average rate, according to Synergy Sports. Pick-and-rolls account for 24.3 percent of the Hawks’ offense with passes, but Atlanta’s conversion rate is only 0.845, also below average.
Horford’s best performances have come against teams with quality bigs and teams with slow-it-down styles, even though Atlanta is best in transition. Matchups with Kendrick Perkins, Roy Hibbert and DeMarcus Cousins have brought out the best in Horford.
He put up 23 points and nine rebounds against the Thunder (Perkins), registered 16 and nine against the Pacers (Hibbert) and charted 20 and 10 against the Kings (Cousins), all while averaging a block per game and maintaining his reputation for doing the little things.