The Cincinnati Bengals could not have scripted a worse ending to their season last year, and fans and reporters have not allowed them to forget it. The Pittsburgh Steelers somehow defeated them in a game the Bengals had completely wrapped up. Vontaze Burfict surely remembers it, but he doesn’t want to hear about it.
Tim Rohan of The MMQB recalled a conversation Burfict had with a reporter earlier this month after a Bengals practice. The linebacker seemed none too pleased when asked about his division rival.
“I don’t give no f—s about them,” Burfict said. “Zero. You can write that, too. I don’t give no f—s about them. They’re just another team. They don’t scare me. Just another team.”
It would be very convenient for Burfict to ignore the Steelers. After Jeremy Hill fumbled the ball away on what could have been a game-sealing drive, Burfict helped Pittsburgh get into field goal range by going for a kill shot on Antonio Brown (video here). The lack of discipline cost the Bengals, who were in position to win their first playoff game since 1990.
Burfict isn’t the only Bengals player who made it clear to the media that he doesn’t want to talk about the Steelers, but he is the only one who is suspended for the first three games of the 2016 season. But he’s not worried about that, either.
“S—, I didn’t really care,” Burfict said of the suspension. “You’ve got to learn from your mistakes. That’s it.”
Learning from mistakes is something Burfict is not very good at. Although, he sometimes gets away with his incredibly dirty style of play, so that could explain why. Either way, pretending the Steelers are “just another team” is exactly that — pretending.
