In the third quarter of Pittsburgh’s 28-21 win over the Bengals on Sunday, Antonio Brown caught a pass over the middle. A trio of Bengals defenders closed in on him, and as he was already well wrapped up, Vontaze Burfict flew into the pile and walloped the back of Brown’s head with a flying elbow.
Burfict was not penalized for the hit, though Brown had to go to the sidelines to recover for a play. This is par for the course for Burfict, who has a history of reckless headhunting against the Steelers. When recounting the hit, Ben Roethlisberger said, “He hits A.B., then, literally, as I am under center for the next play, he points at JuJu and says, ‘You’re next.’ How do you allow that stuff?” Brown himself called it a “nasty hit.”
Burfict didn’t speak to reporters after the game, but Steelers players called him out today. Marcus Gilbert said he should be suspended for trying to injure Brown.
Guard David DeCastro had strong words for the NFL for not protecting star skill players like Brown:
“A cheap shot like that, I thought was unnecessary. ... If they want to talk about making this game safer, maybe they will do something. Or maybe they will put in a new rule that no one is going to call when it matters. Maybe it’s a PR stunt.”
It is ridiculous that Burfict still gets away with shit like this after years of teeing off on Steelers players.
God willing, these two teams never meet in the playoffs again while Burfict is still in the league.