Written by Will Brinson at CBS Sports.com
If you thought the Bengals might distance themselves from linebacker Vontaze Burfict after his latest questionable on-field behavior earned him a three-game suspension, you were wrong. Not only did the Bengals issue statements supporting Burfict after the suspension, but the team just handed the linebacker a huge new extension.
According to multiple reports, both from ESPN and NFL Network, the Bengals gave Burfict a three-year extension worth $38.68 million.
Burfict, who is ineligible to play the first three games of 2017 after he appealed his punishment down from five games, was signed through this year on a four-year, $19 million contract he signed back in August of 2014.
The timing, then, could be more about how the Bengals handle their negotiations with players and less about trying to make a statement that they support Burfict. Clearly they do: you don’t hand someone $38 million if you don’t believe in them as a player and a person.
Burfict’s issues just seem to be that he is a player incapable of not doing the questionable thing on the field. You plug him into the NFL in the 1970s and he would be widely praised as a “warrior” and “an enforcer over the middle.” In today’s game, he is just a guy who cannot follow the rules.
His latest suspension came as a result of not following the NFL’s newest rule, which expanded the definition of defenseless receivers. Burfict laced into Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman in completely unnecessary and illegal fashion.
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