Sept. 12 (UPI) — Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict was retweeting plays from the Pittsburgh Steelers game Sunday while his team was playing.
Those plays included one showing Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier drilling Cleveland Browns rookie DeShone Kizer while Kizer was giving himself up in a sliding position. Shazier earned penalty flags for that hit.
Another play showed Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in a shoving match with Browns defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah. On that play, Roethlisberger flopped to the ground and then lunged at Ogbah’s ankle:
“Bruuuhhhh,” Burfict wrote on a retweet of Roethlisberger’s play, before deleting the tweet. He also retweeted the hit on Kizer.
Shelton took to Twitter on Monday to write about the play against his teammate.
“Good job protecting our players @NFL,” Shelton wrote on a retweet of a video from the Roethlisberger play. “#QBsLeague #DEsAnklesMatter.”
Burfict ‘liked’ that tweet.
Steelers star wide receiver Antonio Brown tweeted the Roethlisberger video, writing: “Hey that’s my quarterback.”
“I forget. I don’t remember,” Roethlisberger told reporters when asked about the play in his postgame press conference. “We got double birds though, I know that.”
Burfict’s Twitter “likes” section is an interesting place. The now private Twitter account features an interaction with a fan’s tweet, which shows the fan flipping off Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
He also ‘liked’ several fans tweets, which said he should be getting more help from the NFLPA regarding his current suspension.
Burfict, 26, is currently serving a three-game suspension after a hit he made in an August preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The ban was originally for five games before it was reduced. The linebacker will miss games against the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers before returning on Oct. 1 against the Browns.
The 2013 Pro Bowl selection agreed to a three-year, $38.68 million contract extension with the franchise on Sept. 7.
“Vontaze is still one of the young, emerging talents within the league,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said of Burfict. “We have worked hard at training, developing and retaining talented players. It’s pleasing that Vontaze has made this commitment to be a part of the organization going forward. It was important to reach an extension before the start of the season and we look forward to having Vontaze back with the team in a few weeks.”
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