Goodell addresses issues surrounding Suh, replay

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was in Detroit Tuesday night for the Lions annual Courage House dinner and took some time to answer questions about the hot topics in Motown:


On his reaction to Ndamukong Suh's kick to the groin of Texans quarterback Matt Schaub:

"Our football operations staff immediately started looking at it. I saw it yesterday from several different angles.  That's the important thing for us, to look at it from every angle, try to understand it. They've been very thoughtful about it.

They're still going through the process of whether it should be a fine and they'll probably make that decision in the next couple of days.
 
Any time you see a play like that, you want to say, 'Why did it happen?' It's hard for us to be able to interpret that just from video.  Those are things, sometimes you have to talk to Ndamukong, in this case. Intent is something that's very difficult for us to ever try to make a judgment on."

On his reaction to Ndamukong Suh's actions on and off the field:

"The reality is, since last Thanksgiving he has not been fined or disciplined from our standpoint. I know he's working at it and he's trying at it and he knows he's got to continue to do that.  The rules are there and everyone's got to play by those rules whether you're Ndamukong or any other player."

On if the NFL will consider changing the replay rule that costs the Lions the opportunity to challenge a touchdown on Thanksgiving against Houston:

"I don't expect it before the end of the regular season. We may evaluate it as it relates to the postseason.  But it certainly will get consideration by the competition committee during the offseason.  When we make any rule changes, it's important to look at the unintended consequences of those rules and that's why the competition committee spends weeks evaluating these and trying to evaluate, 'Will it have an impact on the game that we're not anticipating?'

On any personal concern when Ndamukong Suh is in the headlines for negative reason:

"I think Ndamukong prides himself on what he does on the field. You always want to keep that focus as a player.  He also does a lot off the field in a positive way, but that gets lost when things happen that distract from that and that's the one thing that Ndamukong and I have talked about in the past.  Keep the focus on your playing and what you do in a positive way off the field and he knows he needs to do that."