I have no idea if Suh is a dirty player, nor do I even know what a "dirty" NFL player looks like. "Dirty" is a merit relative to the player who calls you such, and I don't play football. I know Suh hasn't killed anyone, and he in no way contributed to any injury of a Falcons player on the field Sunday. The closest we could ever come to empirical proof that Suh is dirty would be one of those factually dubious anonymous player polls you see in magazines, and I doubt any set of results would make Suh's critics feel better.
I don't really care if Suh is dirty - I'm just elated he didn't apologize for anything on Monday.
Sure, he denied Todd McClure's claim that he yelled "get the cart" when Matt Ryan went down with an ankle/knee/taffy injury for two plays, but he didn't feel the need to show remorse. Nor did he tack on the seemingly mandated boilerplate quote of "those guys are well-coached warriors and we respect their well-coached blah" every NFL player issues when talking about an opponent.
A colleague from the college football peanut gallery once reminded us all - it's not called "feelingsball," and thank God for it. Combined with last week's handshaking fracas, these 5-2 Detroit Lions have an abundance of character, so much so that the national media seem almost confused as to what to do with so many naturally occurring storylines outside of the NFC East or the equally flogged Jets/Pats rivalry.
As for Atlanta, Detroit isn't a division rival, nor a proven winner. They, like the Falcons, seemed destined to scratch out a wildcard berth in January, and the benefit of beating Detroit Sunday should allow Atlanta fans to pay them less mind. I'm a Falcons fan, and I have no quarrel if all of McClure's claims about Suh are verified. Ndamukong Suh is a blossoming icon of unrefined aggression, the kind of player identity (ugly, partisan and violent) the NFL has labored for decades to mask.
The sheer size of the coverage culture around the NFL is such that small items like this have to become big stories simply to grist the mill. Suh is an anomaly certain to be corrected in Roger Goodell's NFL. Suh is interesting. Suh's soundbites are not yet distilled by a thousand tweaks from a thousand publicists and sponsors. Suh should never ever be forced to wear pink cleats. He's Deacon Jones in a video game apocalypse shooter with a pitch-perfect city to reflect his character. Shit, ad peoples, do we have to spell it all out?
A parting aside: If anything, Falcons fans should thank Suh for the media smokescreen: Clearly Matt Ryan is a not an organic life form, and any further attention into this matter might warrant the removal of our glorious competitive edge.