Ravens won't dock Terrell Suggs' pay

Updated: June 8, 2012, 7:52 PM ET
By Jamison Hensley | ESPN.com

The Baltimore Ravens won't take money away from linebacker Terrell Suggs even though the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year was injured away from the team's facility, team owner Steve Bisciotti said Friday.

Bisciotti called the idea of not paying Suggs for the games he would miss "nonsense" and pointed out that football players play basketball all offseason.

Hensley: Show Suggs The Money, Indeed

Hensley The Ravens would be well within their rights to take money from Terrell Suggs but are making the right move in assuring he will be paid in full, ESPN.com's Jamison Hensley writes. Blog

• Blog network: NFL Nation

Witnesses told ESPN's Adam Schefter this week that Suggs injured his Achilles' tendon in April while playing basketball. Suggs has insisted that he was hurt in practicing a conditioning test.

The Ravens could have placed Suggs on the non-football injury list at the start of training camp, which would allow them not to pay him a portion of his $4.9 million salary this season.

Bisciotti said he hasn't asked how Suggs got injured and the cause doesn't matter to him.

"I don't know the truth and it doesn't matter," Biscotti said. "I don't understand the 'We deserve an explanation' kind of thing. Quite honestly, I didn't even ask [general manager Ozzie Newsome] if we got an explanation. ... This one feeling that Ravens' fans deserve to know, I don't understand that."

Suggs has repeatedly said he would play this season and expects to be on the field no later than the end of November. He recorded a career-high 14 sacks in 2011 and was named first-team All-Pro.

Jamison Hensley

NFL
  • ESPN AFC North Blogger
  • A University of Maryland graduate
  • Lives in the Baltimore area with his wife

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