Another day, another person bashing Ndamukong Suh.
This time, it wasn't an anonymous general manager, an opposing player or a media member. This time, it was a teammate.
"Yeah, we're loaded," an anonymous Detroit Lions player told Yahoo! Sport's Jason Cole after Sunday's 35-33 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. "But we have a couple of guys who don't understand what it takes to win. Just making a couple of plays and thinking that makes you great ... sometimes you want to just shake some of these guys and say, 'Don't you get it?' "
When asked to name one of those teammates, the player responded: "Ndamukong (Suh) would be first."
Suh has been embroiled in controversies this past year ranging from traffic citations to his sister's tweets to midair ninja kicks to the groin. He has become a microcosm of the 2012 Lions' disappointment: tons of talent, lacking composure and mental toughness.
Suh's play has improved from a disappointing sophomore season after inflated statistics his rookie year put the spotlight on his broad shoulders. Few have noticed.
It's not Suh's strong play up the middle -- disrupting the pocket, taking on double teams and allowing fellow defensive tackle Nick Fairley to have a Pro Bowl-type season -- that has people talking. It's his boneheaded lapses.
"He's focused for 90 percent of the time," a teammate told Cole. "But it's the 10 percent that kills you...With (Suh), he loses his cool, and all of a sudden, we're blowing a play or dealing with some controversy. When stars act like that, everybody else thinks it's OK to act like that. It's like with kids. You let one get a little out of control, the other one does the same thing pretty quick. It's human nature."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.
