In other words, to win an appeal Suh wouldn’t have to defend all his prior personal fouls. He would just have to convince Cottrell that he wasn’t intentionally stepping on Rodgers. Or even if Suh can’t convince Cottrell that he did nothing wrong at all, Suh might convince Cottrell that what he did doesn’t warrant a suspension. When Cottrell overturned Reed’s suspension, he upheld a fine for Reed and said that Reed did deserve some punishment for his late hits. Cottrell just thought the punishment of a suspension was too severe. A fine of any more than $22,000 would actually hurt Suh financially more than a suspension, because players on wild card teams are only paid $22,000 for the first playoff game.