Did Jim Harbaugh Help The Miami Dolphins Tamper With Ndamukong Suh?

updated: 3/09/2015

Is Jim Harbuagh To Blame For Ndamukong Suh’s Departure?

As news of Ndamukong Suh’s defection from Detroit reverberates around the media, Lions fans are looking for someone to blame.  And there are more scapegoats in this situation than on a greek countryside as fans are pointing fingers at the Detroit Lions front office and Suh’s agent.  Still there are others citing greed as the primary motivator for Suh’s departure.

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But there may be more behind Ndamukong Suh’s choice to head to Miami than your typical contractual negligence from the Detroit Lions front office.

Michigan football saviour and former NFL head coach Jim Harbaugh may have played a factor.

Now this is the part of the post where I admit to engaging in speculation. In fact some may even call this a crazy conspiracy theory so feel free to get out your tinfoil hat if you’d like.

On February 19th, shortly after the Detroit Lions playoff loss and with his contract still unresolved, Ndamukong Suh visited the University of Michigan campus and spent some time with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan football HQ.

With absolutely no other logical or conceivable reason for a Nebraska Cornhusker legend to visit the Wolverines Football center of opertations, most Lions fans saw this as a way of showing his interest in staying in Detroit.  However the visit may not have been motivated by interest in Detroit but rather the Miami Dolphins.

Stay with me here.

Steven Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, is a Michigan alum and huge supporter or Michigan Football.  He is also a huge supporter of Jim Harbaugh for whom Ross had campaigned during the Michigan coaching search.  In fact Harbaugh would probably be the Miami Dolphins head coach if the Michigan Wolverines weren’t also in play for the services fo the former 49er’s head man.

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With NFL tampering rules firmly in place at the time of Suh’s visit to Michigan in February, was Harbaugh doing the bidding of his booster and benefactor.  Did Ross use the visit to reach out to Suh about signing a free agent contract with the Miami Dolphins?

It is an interesting question considering the timing and curiosity surrounding Ndamukong Suh’s visit to An Arbor.  It is made even more interesting considering Suh, with previously documented relationship Harbaugh, didn’t speak to any of the Wolverines players.  If the visit wasn’t for Michigan’s marketing purposes, why visit Ann Arbor instead of his alma-mater in Nebraska?

You can call is baseless speculation if you want but in light of Suh’s almost immediate choice to sign with Miami despite a number of suitors, one of which may have paid him more money (Oakland), it becomes easy to see that the Dolphins owner could have expressed his initial interest through Harbaugh during their February 19th visit.

Because of Ndamukong Suh’s habit of not talking to the media, we probably will never know what truly went into the decision.  However it is certainly possible Steven Ross could have used his influence at Michigan to tip the scales in Miami’s favor.

Update: According to a report by Pro Football Talk the league has sent out a letter to teams warning of possible investigations into tampering charges. This after a frenzy of reports on Sunday claiming teams and players have agreed to deals.