Le'Veon Bell wants payback against Vontaze Burfict for 2015 injury
The reputation of former Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict has been well earned. Burfict became a centerpiece of Cincinnati's defense in the early 2010s, only to be ostracized from the league after his career took on an unfortunate identity. Burfict was suspended multiple times for dirty hits and incidents while playing for the Bengals. His name […]
The reputation of former Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict has been well earned. Burfict became a centerpiece of Cincinnati's defense in the early 2010s, only to be ostracized from the league after his career took on an unfortunate identity.
Burfict was suspended multiple times for dirty hits and incidents while playing for the Bengals. His name would become synonymous for malicious intent on the gridiron, but not every tackle he made fell into that category.
Le'Veon Bell should know that, but his memory says otherwise.
In an interview with Misfits Boxing, Bell, who's now got two wins as a professional boxer, alluded to Burfict as someone he'd love to meet in the boxing ring for some revenge for the incident that occurred eight years ago.
"They [Burfict] had purposely injured me," Bell stated about the tackle in question. "I don't think I want to say the name, but people who watched my career when I hurt my knee, people know. I would love to put my hands on him in the ring."
First off, Bell would likely beat Burfict in a boxing match considering, well, Burfict doesn't box. Not exactly a fair contest, but that goes to show how bothered Bell is about the injury to this day.
There have been plenty of examples of Burfict showcasing the intent to injury other players. His reputation precedes him. But this specific play from November of 2015 has little to no weight in supporting that.
Burfict made a diving tackle on Bell using his torso to bring him down. Unless Burfict is secretly the world's greatest contortionist to have ever lived, there's simply no way he purposely rotated his entire body nearly 180 degrees to perfectly land on Bell's planted knee.
What happened to Bell was undoubtedly unfortunate. The talented running back would go on to miss the rest of the season and end up playing two more years in Pittsburgh before a contract dispute ended his time there in 2018.
Out of the catalogue of bad moments in Burfict's career, this comes out as incredibly innocent in comparison. And Bell wants to literally punch him for it. After eight years, we can go ahead and classify this as weirdo behavior.
