Ravens defensive lineman Chris Canty isn’t defending Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh. But Canty does find the uproar about Suh taking a shot at Vikings center John Sullivan’s knee curious.
That’s because Canty says defensive linemen take shots to the knees from offensive linemen all the time, and no one bats an eye. In an interview with Andrew Siciliano on NFL Network, Canty said what he’d like to see is for everyone to agree that blocking a player in his knee is never acceptable.
“I think it was dirty,” Canty said. “I have to say this though: I understand his frustration because offensive linemen do it to defensive linemen all the time. But you just can’t retaliate like that. I’m an advocate of everybody staying away from the low blocks. I don’t understand why guys feel like they have to go low. We lift all of those weights in the offseason, we’re supposed to be the best athletes – surely you can find a way to block a guy other than to cut block him.”
Canty makes a fair point, but the rules of the NFL say that it’s OK for an offensive lineman to block low on a defensive lineman on the line of scrimmage, while it’s not permitted for anyone to block low on an interception return, which is what Suh did. Defensive linemen have been saying for years that those rules should change. They should continue to press that case.
