03-16-2018, 05:23 PM
(03-16-2018, 04:50 PM)The Gooney Rule Wrote: I rarely post on here, though I'm particularly passionate about this situation:
Vontaze Burfict is exactly the kind of player I've felt this team has needed for decades. I truly enjoy watching his elite football IQ in action, and the intensity he brings to the team. In my mind there's no way you trade him or cut him until he proves to be genuinely malicious to the team or others, or his play diminishes enough to be beaten out for a roster spot.
I know it's chic to hype the cliche about availability being the best ability. Except for missing time with the injuries that are inevitable from his high impact style of play, most of his suspensions are incredibly dubious. It really shouldn't be up for debate that the league has a clear bias for the Steelers, and the fact that he was suspended for so many games to start a new season for the hit on Brown from a previous year's wild card game was absurd. (Regardless if he bag tagged or twisted ankles earlier in his career.)
The absurdity escalated in orders of magnitude with the suspension after a shoulder block in the preseason to a guy running a route across his face well within 5 yrds of the line of scrimmage (subjective defenseless player rules be damned.) An ejection for a casual brush of a hand to a referee looking for an excuse to further this narrative of Vontaze as the league's ultimate villain caps of this shameless slant against the Bengals.
In my mind, there's no doubt whatsoever that the league is looking to derail the once-in-multiple-generations talent we have on our team in Burfict; he and the Bengals are the biggest threat to a cruisy Steeler season (not Baltimore, and certainly not Cleveland, whom the Steelers have been gifted to finish the season against each and every year (bar one) since the league instituted division games to finish a season - the AFCN being the ONLY division with that kind of static scheduling across the league, and it's not even close in comparing how little our schedule rotates to other divisions, begging to ask the question, "who benefits from such an under-the-radar arrangement?"...automatic 2nd bye week for the Goodell's HR Managers, the Rooney family.)
And now with this latest episode of one-for-the-thumb on the scale, the reality could be that a totally premeditated and illegal hit on Vontaze by Boo-Hoo Scheister-Smith could potentially sideline him for a quarter of another season, and that's a reality that is sickening. Add more nausea in that the Steelers, League, sports media, and most fans erroneously believe that Vontaze maliciously ended Bell's season twice, and they all gleefully contend he deserves what's coming to him. Putrid.
Unfortunately, an alarming number of our fans don't seem to recognize that if the ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl, you best believe that Burfict's play at LB will be monumental in any such scenario where that could, in theory, you know, maybe happen. You don't get rid of a guy of that caliber for what could very well be another BS and/or bogus suspension brought on by a BS punk illegal hit by a squad that has clearly sought to influence the league in previous suspensions of the same guy for hits that weren't even close to the level of the dirty shot Vontaze took in the Steelers game last year.
His contract is manageable, and even if the league decides to once again railroad us and help the Shittsburgh gravy train get rolling early for one more ride for the Stealer B's, there's no draft pick or replacement linebacker out there that could provide even a fraction of what Vontaze does when he's in there - fat or otherwise, suspended or not. You just take what you get, when you can get it or the league allows, and you calculate that his game changing plays and mind will indeed show up at some point, and just provide enough magic to get us the ultimate prize one of these fine days. At the bare minimum, he's one helluva a 7th Lb'er. I'm taking that all day long, even if it's just twice on Sundays.
I'll never forget how Burfict, Pacman, and Hill rewarded Mike Brown for taking a chance on them with his once in a generation, first career playoff win against Pittsburgh a few years ago.
