It’s almost been two full months since the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Wild Card game in a contest that many will never forget the ending of. Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict played a big part in that late loss to the Steelers and because of that he’s still facing questions regarding what happened during the final minutes of that game.
In a recent interview with Josina Anderson of ESPN, Burfict let it be known that he still doesn’t believe his hit on Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown was illegal. The league, however, certainly disagrees as they have since suspended the Bengals linebacker for the first three games of the 2016 season.
While Burfict isn’t willing to take blame for his late penalty in that game, he pretty much threw his teammate, cornerback Adam Jones, under the bus during his interview with Anderson. Burfict said that Jones made a mistake when he went after Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter, who was on the field while an injured Brown was still down being attended to by the team’s medical staff. While porter was indeed talking to the Bengals players, Burfict indicated that he actually received praise from the Steelers coach.
“We all know Joey Porter. Joey Porter, all he does is talk, Burfict told Anderson. “But, it was nothing going on between me and him, but, Adam [Jones] obviously got a little bit fed up, like, why are you on the field right now talking to my teammates. Adam didn’t know that he was actually giving me some good words of wisdom. When Joey Porter came on, he was like, ‘Man, I really respect your game.’ And at that point, I didn’t want to hear that.”
Burfict went on to say that Jones definitely should’ve controlled his actions and especially shouldn’t have gone after Porter, which resulted in yet another 15-yard penalty on top of Burfict’s and the eventual game-winning kick.
“He made a mistake, but Joey shouldn’t have been on the field talking, Burfict told Anderson. “Adam got my back, 100 to 110%. I respect him, because I told him, ‘Man, he wasn’t saying nothing bad like that.’ One of the refs was looking at Adam and right when Adam like kind of pushed Joey Porter and he was like, ‘Oh, this is it, he just threw it.’ So, I’m like, man, I kind of feel like we were cheated a little bit.”
Burfict will continue on in his attempt to repair his image, but at least he seemed to be truthful as to what transpired when Porter was out on the fired. I find it a bit funny, however, that he still doesn’t blame himself at least partially for the loss.
Posted by Josina Anderson on Tuesday, March 1, 2016
