New York, NY – The NFL announced on Wednesday that it has fined Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh $30,000 for his kick to Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub on Thanksgiving Day.
Earlier in the week, the NFL declined to suspend Suh, though the league did not rule out fining the controversial lineman for his actions on Thanksgiving which saw him kick Schaub in the groin while falling to the ground during a pass rush in the first quarter of Thursday's 34-31 overtime loss to the Texans.
Suh has a well-documented history of on-field violations and was handed a 2-game ban last season for stomping on the arm of Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith during a 2011 Thanksgiving matchup,
"I think I'm going to always be punished in some form or fashion for last Thanksgiving," said Suh after Wednesday's practice. "I apologized for it and I'm going to continue to apologize for it. It's something that happened, a mistake that I made. I'm going to continue to move past it. Some people may not. Some people will."
Suh, voted the league's dirtiest player in a recent poll taken by the Sporting News, has been fined numerous times by the league for flagrant and overaggressive play during his three-year career. His most notorious moment came during Thanksgiving of last season, when he pushed Dietrich-Smith's head to the turf and deliberately stepped on his arm in a nationally televised clash with the Packers.
The 2010 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year was immediately ejected from that game and forced to sit out two others without pay.
Suh also incurred a $20,000 fine for an illegal hit on Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton during the 2011 preseason and was fined twice for unsportsmanlike conduct during his rookie campaign of 2010.
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