Lack of Institutional control will do him no favors. He shoulda sat the problem down. I mean how many times did he talk to him before he fucks it up anyway? Dude was itching for that hit.
I guarantee you I can find a play similar from the NFL this year. There is no consistency in the NFL. Bernard was still hit in the head. I think that is what led to what we witnessed tonight. Jeremy Hill went crazy when Bernard was hit in the head but got it back together. There is no excuse for Burfict, he should be suspended if not banned from the league. I don't see any difference in targeting a player or hitting someone in the head though. None! My first post was talking of the inconsistency from game to game I watched this year not just this one game. You either gonna protect all the players or you gonna protect certain players?
Been watching Prime Time and LT debate the Burfict hit for the last 10 minutes, and they keep looking at it from every angle in slomo and arguing whether he lowered his shoulder or was trying to avoid the hit. Now they've called hits like this penalties all season and the head has become a forbidden target, so I don't think there's any question the flag should have been thrown. But what I would like to see is NFL Network run the play in real time, and tell us how much time elapsed between the instant the ball passed Brown and the instant he got hit. I bet its about half a second. I would argue that it is physically impossible in the time alotted for Burfict to process the information that the ball had not been caught, then redirect his 250 body which is moving at full speed to avoid contact. Impossible.
Here's the thing though, you have a guy who has been in the middle of every skirmish in the game, he has a history of dirty play, the refs have had to warn him multiple times, that play looked like Burfict was targeting his head. Now it looked like he was trying to use the shoulder, but all the same looked like he was going for the head. Then you have another dirty ass son of a bitch Adam Jones get into it with Joey Porter who is in street clothes and pushes an official I think, I didn't get to see the replay because they were showing Brown being taken off the field. Burfict is a thug. Serves him right. AJ McCarron is saying it was raining when they had the ball but not when the Steelers did. He is literally blaming the weather. Saying the officials dried the ball for the Steelers and not for them.
Burfict's problem was that his launch height was too damn high. You've got to go lower. No excuse. Brown had jumped for the ball, so it should've been easier not to go str8 for his head. It was a dirty play. No doubt in my mind. Avoiding contact was probably not possible but a straight up head shot was totally avoidable from my recollection of the play.
Reread. I'm not saying the call was the wrong one; in the way the rules are currently written an enforced, it was 100% correct. I'm saying sometimes its impossible to avoid the hit, and its not fair to the defender in those situations.
I'm not disagreeing with you or your point! I think that is where reputation enters the equation though.
