I know I just posted an entry a couple hours ago, but I got blasted for comparing Ndamukong Suh to Dick Butkus.
Like Butkus was a saint!?!?
It's hard with the pansy ass rules we have now to play dirty the way that Butkus did. I get that there does need be better protection for quarterbacks and receivers, but seriously. Do we need all those pansy rules?
Suh plays the game dirty. There is no denying that. It's one of the things that I really like about the kid. Sure, he's only in his second year so there's no knowing if Suh is going to ravage his body for the game the same way that Butkus did.
But, the truth is that Butkus was a nasty dirty player. His reference to "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and the head rolling down the stairs and how he imagined that happening on the football field, but not to him.
Kind of says something about what type of player he was.
Butkus played the last 4 or 5 years of his short career with no knees of which to speak of. He was an 8 time pro-bowler the 9 years he played.
Is Suh the next Dick Butkus? No. There will never be another Dick Butkus just like there will never be another Ndamukong Suh.
Their playing styles are so similar that comparisons are almost inevitable. While Butkus is proven, Suh still has some years to go.
It is a matter of time, sure, to see how much Suh's body will pay the price for playing the game the way he does.
All I know is that I'm excited to watch his career develop.
Great blog entry. I was thinking of the recent cricism of Suh, and my immediate thought was Dick Butkus, who was a complete animal that wanted to genuinely eviscerate opponents. I did a quick google of "Butkus Suh"', and yours was one of the first entries. I couldn't agree more. I'm sure teams hated Butkus when he played, but he's venerated now. We'll see where Suh lands in the future. He's a very promising and unusual talent indeed.
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