Terrell Suggs is doing his best to make me his biggest fan.
Suggs, who sacked Ben Roethlisberger twice in the AFC Championship Game while playing with a severely injured shoulder, has already proven that he is willing to play -- and play well -- through injury. That's the kind of guy players want beside them. That's the kind of guy fans want to root for: Someone who cares as much as they do, and will do anything in their power to be on the field come Sunday.
That was enough to sell me on Suggs, really. But now he's going above and beyond.
Some of you will say this could be posturing for the media and the hometown fans, and maybe you're right. But this isn't the first time Suggs has suggested publicly this season that he would be willing to take a little less if it means keeping inside linebackers Ray Lewis and Bart Scott around, too.
Suggs worships Lewis, maybe more than any member of the the Raven defense. He proves it with his comments in the newspaper each week. He also knows that the defense in Balmer is a special one. Keeping it together is apparently important to him. He wants a championship and he knows the Big Three of the linebacking corps have a better shot at that championship together rather than apart.
It's remarkably refreshing, even if things don't work out, to hear a player of Suggs' stature adamantly say that he'll take a discount to continue to play in the city that he loves, on the defense that he has helped keep dominant.
Hopefully Ray and Bart follow their younger teammate's lead.
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