Broadway Joe
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Raiders quarterback Derek Carr can call Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict “misunderstood” all he wants, but Carr doesn’t understand what it means to be on the wrong end of a Burfict cheap shot.
Jets running back Le'Veon Bell does.
In the latest episode of the 17 Weeks from Uninterrupted, SiriusXM, and Pandora, Bell discusses the 12-game suspension that the NFL imposed earlier this week on Burfict.
“There’s certain fine lines you really can’t cross and I feel like he kind of finds it every game,” Bell said regarding Burfict. “It’s like unbelievable. The league did what it did. I’m glad they’re finally trying to bite down on things like that because we don’t want dirty players in the league. Obviously, you don’t want guys to not be able to provide for their family. It’s not like I don’t want him on the field, but I just want him to play clean. If he’s not playing clean then other guys can’t really provide for their families because they’re hurt.”
That’s a great point. And if the decision comes down to keeping the dirty player from playing or keeping the opponents he injures from playing, it’s more than fair to keep the dirty player from playing.
“I’ve played Vontaze Burfict numerous times and there’s been a lot of plays that people don’t see where it’s been dirty,” Bell said. “He had a bunch of dirty things on me, but in 2015, the one that kind of hurt me on the sideline, he didn’t have to do that.”
That play resulted in Bell suffering a season-ending knee injury.
“It kind of changed my life,” Bell said. “I feel like in 2015 I was on the verge of having my best football year. At that time I was in the best shape of my life, I was doing everything right, so then when I got hurt, it just kind of like set me back and I kind of went into this like, I don’t want to say depression, but it was something close to it. Just because of the fact that I wasn’t able to play football and I was hurt. And it was so hard, it was literally the hardest thing ever for me to come back from a knee injury. Don’t get me wrong, knee injuries happen. But it shouldn’t be like a guy trying to pull you down and wrap their legs around you and pull you back to really fold your leg up. It shouldn’t be like that.”
Indeed it shouldn’t. And the league is trying to keep that from happening, by getting Burfict off the field for the rest of the season, possibly hopeful that in 2020 no one will sign him.