For Pittsburgh Steelers, Vontaze Burfict remains something to be cautious of

After serving his four-game suspension, Vontaze Burfict made his season debut a week ago for the Bengals. Now they welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers, in which Burfict has been deemed enemy number one.

There’s a reputation in the Cincinnati, Pittsburgh rivalry, and it needs to be reviewed.

You don’t have to do much digging online to find story after story of the Bengals and Steelers in which Burfict wasn’t in the middle of everything. To say Burfict has been a thorn in the Steelers’ side may be the understatement of the century.

When we talk about the most dangerous opponents, we usually talk about how these specific players are major weapons for their team and how the Steelers need to gameplan against them in order to have success. When we talk about Vontaze Burfict, we mean the word “dangerous,” very literally.

This is a player who has hurt multiple Steelers since he was injected into the rivalry on the Ohio River. He hurt star running back Le’Veon Bell and subsequently celebrated the injury. Most notably in the Wildcard fiasco, he landed on Ben Roethlisberger, hurting his shoulder (which would be a penalty in today’s NFL), and hit a defenseless Antonio Brown in the head, giving him a concussion that kept Brown out of the following week’s playoff game in Denver.

There are players who play with great intensity. There are players who even flirt with the line between “hard-nosed” and “dirty.” Burfict doesn’t flirt with that line. He’s way over the line. His repeated antics in these games, along with instances against other teams that have earned him suspensions, make him a dangerous threat every time the Steelers line up against the Bengals.

The saddest part of all of this is that Burfict is a good player. He’s really good. He doesn’t have to be a dirty player to be a good player. It’s the choice that he makes to aim for people’s heads, take blindside shots at players not in the play, and celebrate injuries that make him hard to watch.

If anyone on the Steelers should have their head on a swivel, it’s JuJu Smith-Schuster. We all remember what JuJu did last season, that gave Burfict a concussion.

Burfict doesn’t give off the impression of being the guy who forgives and forgets. He definitely gives the impression of being the guy who’s looking for a receipt and giving a player what he feels like is owed to him. It also wouldn’t put it passed us if Burfict takes his revenge out on another Steeler just to send a message.

This is something the NFL could truly get involved in to prevent anyone from seriously getting hurt. They should take precautions and warn both teams that if anything happens in this game remotely close to purposely injuring a player, the repercussions would be severe.

While Burfict isn’t the only one who’s thrown punches in this dogfight, he’s definitely thrown, and landed, the most. Burfict may not be the most dangerous threat to the Steelers schematically on Sunday, but he sure is the most dangerous threat to ending a player’s season.