Suh again dealing with ‘dirty’ accusation; teammates, coach rally to his defense

Is Ndamukong Suh a dirty player, as LeGarrette Blount insisted Sunday?

“He's an amazing player,” Dolphins defensive end Andre Branch answered. “One of the best D-tackles in football. So I guess if dirty goes with that, I guess he can live with it.”

Added coach Adam Gase: “Since I've been here, Suh's done everything right. He's played hard. He's tried to do everything he can do to help our defense play well. It's hard for me to comment on something that I wasn't really sure what [Blount] was talking about or what incident he was talking about. I can't say. I don't really understand that he was getting at there.”

Blount, the Patriots running back, popped off about Suh during a post-game interview with WBZ-TV in Boston Sunday.

Blount, angry about Suh falling on him late in regulation and then shoving him on the way back up, said that Suh is “a dirty player. He’s always been a dirty player. He’s going to always be a dirty player.”

Blount added: “There’s not many guys in this league that like that guy. I don’t even know if there are a lot of guys on that team that like him.”

Blount, who retaliated by ripping off Suh’s helmet, must not have asked Branden Albert. On Monday, Albert called Suh “a good person” and that he has “a lot of respect for him.”

Albert added: “The only opinions that matter are the people that's in the locker room. I feel like if you ask anybody in the locker room about him, he's a good guy.”

Suh of course has a reputation for line-crossing rough play that dates back to his time in Detroit. Most famously, on Thanksgiving 2011 he stomped on Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith, earning an ejection. He’s lost some $400,000 in his career because of fines and suspensions, although he’s basically been on his best behavior since signing with Miami.

(Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson might disagree; both have been hit by Suh’s wayward feet this year, although the league didn’t make a big deal of either instance.)

“A man's dominating a grown man, I don't know if that's dirty,” Albert said. “He's just got that much power. I don't see him doing anything. I see him dominating. That's the only thing I can say -- he's a dominating force.”

This story was originally published January 2, 2017 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Suh again dealing with ‘dirty’ accusation; teammates, coach rally to his defense."