The latest on-field incident involving Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh adds even more intrigue to his potential free-agent status this coming offseason.

Suh is eligible to play in the Lions’ opening-round NFC playoff game Sunday at Dallas after hearing officer Ted Cottrell on Tuesday rescinded the NFL’s one-game suspension, instead imposing a $70,000 fine for stepping on the leg of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers during last weekend’s game at Green Bay.

But the episode with Rodgers serves as a reminder to any NFL team that might be interested in signing Suh of his lengthy list of on-field transgressions.

“The history is there,” an executive with one NFL team said this week, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to comment publicly on a player under contract to another franchise. “You can’t ignore it. It was already there before this. It has to be a factor for anyone who evaluates him.”

Suh was suspended for two games by the league in 2011 for stepping on the arm of Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith after a play during a Thanksgiving game. His fines include $100,000 for a low block on Minnesota Vikings center John Sullivan during an interception return last season and $30,000 for a kick to the groin of Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub in 2012.

Until last Sunday, however, Suh had managed to shift the focus this season from his behavior to his play. He’s had a superb season and has been the centerpiece of one of the NFL’s best defenses. He was selected to the Pro Bowl for the fourth time in his five-year NFL career.

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“That guy can ruin a game. (He) does ruin it,” Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said earlier this season. “You have to know where he is on every play. … You can’t not block him. He’s right there in the middle of the defense. So somebody has to block him. You try to create the best angles, matchups, scheme that you can to try to help whatever it is he’s doing. … He’s very disruptive.”

Suh actually was considered a first-time offender under the NFL’s player-safety rules for the incident with Rodgers, given that he’d gone the now-required 32 games (including some during the preseason) since his previous infraction. Some in and around the sport argued that a suspension was not warranted in this case. The NFL thought it was. But Cottrell, one of the hearing officers appointed jointly by the league and the NFL Players Association, overturned the ban.

Whatever the proper interpretation of the Suh-Rodgers episode, the conversation about Suh’s on-field behavior has been revived at a time when he soon could be hitting the open market.

Suh is in the final season of his contract and is eligible for unrestricted free agency in March. The Lions halted contract negotiations with Suh last summer but expressed confidence at the time they could re-sign Suh after the season. Using the franchise player tag on Suh to limit his free-agent mobility might not be a realistic option for the Lions since it would require the team to give him a one-year contract worth about $26.9 million, a 20 percent raise on Suh’s deal that counts about $22.4 million against this season’s salary cap.

Suh twice has been named the league’s dirtiest player in Sporting News polls of NFL players. An NFL agent who does not represent Suh said in the summer that teams could be wary of signing Suh because of what the agent called “the Haynesworth factor.”

Washington signed Albert Haynesworth, a controversial defensive tackle coming off consecutive Pro Bowl seasons with the Tennessee Titans, to a seven-year, $100 million deal in 2009 that included $41 million in guaranteed money. Haynesworth lasted only two seasons in Washington before being traded to the Patriots in 2011 for a fifth-round draft pick in 2013.

But that agent also said last summer of Suh that “this guy can play. He’ll find someone to give him a bunch of money.”


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