National Football League
Brock: Shoelace antics led to Suh stomp
National Football League

Brock: Shoelace antics led to Suh stomp

Published Dec. 15, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

Former Green Bay Packer Matt Brock revealed Thursday some inside information as to what likely sparked Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to stomp on an opposing player's arm during the Lions-Packers Thanksgiving Day matchup.

Brock, speaking on KXTG radio in Portland, Ore., said he learned from Packers offensive line coach James Campen that Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith was instructed to untie Suh's shoelaces at every possible opportunity during the game.

"So my friend, James [Campen] — man, I probably shouldn't say his name, he told me not to tell this, and I was like, 'Whatever,' — he's the offensive line coach. The center, or one of his guards, he's had like one or two starts in his career and he's got to play against Suh. So he's pretty puckered, right? So, he's talking to James, the offensive line coach, going, 'What do I do? What do I do?'"

"James is just in his mind going, 'This guy is going to get killed. I got to take his mind off it, give him something else to do.' So he says, 'OK, every time you're in a pile, I want you to focus on something. I want you to untie his shoes.

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"'Anytime you can, just reach in; he's got floppy shoe laces, he doesn't spat (cover them with tape) or anything, just untie his shoes. It will irritate him.'"

Brock said the Packers offensive lineman untied Suh's shoes three times during the game.

"That's why he stomped him," Brock said. "That's why he banged his head on the ground and he stomped him."

Suh, who already had been fined three times in his short NFL career for illegal hits on quarterbacks, served a two-game suspension for the stomp to Dietrich-Smith's arm.

The 2010 Defensive Rookie of the Year has avoided any direct answers to the stomping incident since returning to the Lions this week.

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