Burfict fined $75K; Lewis says LB did nothing wrong

Marvin Lewis made his stance clear. He believes Vontaze Burfict did nothing wrong Sunday against New England. 

The NFL disagreed. The league levied a $75K fine against the Bengals’ maligned linebacker on Wednesday to prove their point. 

The league fined Burfict solely for the alleged stomping on the leg of LeGarrette Blount following the final touchdown of the 35-17 loss to the Patriots. This was not connected to a possible hit to the knee of Martellus Bennett earlier in the same drive. Burfict will appeal. 

Stomp video adds to Burfict suspension concerns

To make a rough day even worse, Burfict went down in practice suffering an ankle injury. He was carted off for what a team source said to be precautionary reasons and to be evaluated further. Marvin Lewis said it was not a serious injury. 

But that wasn't the hot topic of the day. 

On the play in question, Burfict charged into the pile after the score and appeared to spike the back of Blount’s leg, but no visual evidence showed the actual contact. 

That’s where Lewis’ defense begins. 

“I don’t think he meant to do anything,” the coach said. “I’ve been through it back and forth as big as this board behind me. Hell if I can see who steps where. He tried to step through and go help the teammate that somebody has his hand on his teammates’ facemask pushing him in the face. That’s what he’s trying to get to.” 

Lewis said he believes “100 percent” of the reaction stems from Burfict’s reputation rather than the actual acts. 

The reputation is both expansive and expensive. This marked the eighth time in 53 career NFL games Burfict was fined. Counting lost game checks due to his three-game suspension earlier this year, those fines total $805,400. 

• Week 3, 2013: $10K — striking Packers’ Ryan Taylor in the groin
• Week 3, 2013:  $21K — hit on defenseless player, Packers’ James Jones
• Week 8, 2013: $21K — spearing New York Jets’ WR Stephen Hill
• Week 6, 2014: $25K — ankle twisting Cam Newton and Greg Olsen
• Week 13, 2015: $69.4K — three separate unsportsmanlike incidents vs. Steelers
• Week 17, 2015: $50K —  hit to defenseless tight end Maxx Williams away from play
• Wildcard Playoffs, 2016: $534K -- three-game suspension — multiple violations of player-safety rules including hit on Antonio Brown
• Week 6, 2016: $75K -- stomping on leg of LeGarrette Blount

By the numbers: Burfict suspension and NFL history

Burfict's history and reputation are part of his challenge in this league now.

“That’s a thing he knows he has to realize all the time that way so it’s not the national fury all the time of what’s going on,” Lewis said. “Just play football. Our guys aren’t going to talk about it. As I instructed everybody if they have any questions they can talk to me about it.” 

However, Bengals players couldn’t resist talking about a topic trending across league circles this week. Carlos Dunlap tried to hold himself back for a second, but wanted to point out the types of comments overheard from referees during Sunday’s game. 

The new reality for Vontaze Burfict

“There was one point in the game…nah, I ain’t gonna say that…it was just like…nah, I’m going to say it: There was one time when the ref came to us and told us to ‘have 55 calm down something-something.’ But he wasn’t in the middle of the thing when it happened,” Dunlap said. “I was just like, see that. I was trying to tell him that’s how they look. When stuff go on, they’re going to assume you were close by or involved. And he wasn’t on that time. When you have a history of that, that’s going to happen and that’s why you just gotta be aware of that and try to stay out of the middle of things and just play football that way.”

Close friend Adam Jones sees the targeting, too, just as clear as the effect of the league’s disciplinary hand. 

“He’s (targeted), but everybody knows what it is,” Jones said. “At a certain point you just have to go play football and try not to let it bother you the way you play. Me talking to Tez, it does bother him. I’ve never seen him go low on anybody. It is what is, you get patted on the back when you do good and the first time you have a heated situation everybody throw you under the world.” 

Jones pointed out more players on the Bengals (2-4) need to play with the passion displayed by the linebacker, while adding the need to control those emotions at certain times. His view of Burfict differs from most across the league. He views him as a rare breed of player in this NFL. 

“The man is being paid to be a hired hitman,” Jones said. “There’s only a couple linebackers that plays with that type of aggression. Those are the great ones. Go back and look at it, I’m not saying Ray Lewis was a dirty player or anything, but him and Vontaze have the same characteristics. Exactly the same. It’s just Ray Lewis grew up and found another piece of life and changed his way about doing things. Vontaze young, a 26-year-old. He’ll learn.” 

As for the hit Burfict made on Martellus Bennett, Lewis came out on Monday and stated his belief the linebacker bit on the pump fake and had zero intentions of taking a cheap shot to the knee of the New England tight end. 

Lewis: No suspension expected for Burfict

Multiple players backed up this contention on Wednesday, none more than offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth. He sees the reputation factor making all the difference in national perception of the play. 

“Anybody that understands anything about football knows that that play was a pump fake where they threw it at the tight end, Vontaze put his head down and dove at the tight end's legs like every linebacker in the National Football League does to tackle those big guys,” Whitworth said. “And the ball actually zips right over their head. Martellus even stuck his hands up for a minute thinking he was getting the ball. The story is not that Vontaze got up and apologized to him and said 'I didn't realize you weren't getting the ball.' Martellus has even said that. The story is that Vontaze is a monster for doing that. The story should be exactly the situation. It's a bang-bang play, he made a mistake, he got up and immediately apologized to the player. The player even acknowledged that he apologized. But the only thing we're talking about is Vontaze is a monster. Why? Because everyone wants a story. It's not a story. It's irrelevant to talk about it.”