Well, this is an interesting story. Former Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Matt Brock was on the radio in Portland yesterday, where he discussed the Packers Thanksgiving day game with the Detroit Lions and one particular strategy that worked like gangbusters.
Brock, who’s friends with Packers offensive line coach James Campen, claims Campen told guard Evan Deitrich-Smith to untie Detroit defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh‘s shoes whenever he could. The theory is, Suh got so pissed by this, it led him to snap, bounce Dietrich-Smith’s head off the turf, stomp him and get ejected from the game.
Here’s the transcript via MLive.
First of the all, you know the experience of the Green Bay offensive line right now? It’s like next to nothing. They have so many injuries. They’ve got guys with one, two, three, four, and maybe 14 starts under their belts playing right now. The only reason they’re winning is because Aaron Rodgers is a stud.
So my friend, James – 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 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.”
He goes, “What?”
“Anytime you can, just reach in, he’s got floppy shoe laces, he doesn’t spat or anything, just untie his shoes. It will irritate him.
He untied his shoes three times in the game. That’s why he stomped him. That’s why he banged his head on the ground and he stomped him. When (Suh) went to the sideline it looked like he was telling the coach, “I didn’t do anything” and he put his foot up like, “I didn’t stomp him. I didn’t do anything.” He was actually going, “The damn guy keeps untying my shoes.”