Vontaze Burfict knows he must change, but still he feels targeted

Now that his appeal has been upheld, it’s official: Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict will sit out the first three games of the 2016 NFL season for his repeated incidents of violent play.

You could argue, in fact, that Burfict cost his team four games considering the way things fell apart for the Bengals in the final 90 seconds of their playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in January. Burfict’s head shot on receiver Antonio Brown opened the door for Pittsburgh to win the wild-card game, and it led directly to Burfict’s eventual suspension.

Burfict told ESPN that the play has haunted him — and that he knows he needs to change his style.

“Like I told coach [Marvin Lewis], I wish I could take that play back because I probably would’ve hit him low,” Burfict said. “I don’t like hitting low, but I have to change because it’s getting flags because I hit him high or hit him in the helmet, and it’s so hard to determine where to hit the offender because they’re gonna tuck their body, and you have to pretty much tuck with them.”

He added:

“I tried to pull up at the last second, but it was obviously too late — it’s a bang-bang play,” Burfict said.

Burfict deflected all comments on the matter after that game, so these are really his first expanded thoughts on the matter. Despite admitting that he erred on the Brown hit, and with a patterned history of questionable hits (16 personal-foul penalties since 2012), Burfict indicated that he also feels like a target when he plays. Especially on the hit on Brown.

“I play hard. Sometimes it gets me in trouble,” he said. “My style of play is aggressive, and [the game has] changed, and I have to change with it. And that play right there, I think if I wasn’t number 55, I wouldn’t have got flagged.”

Burfict has no one to blame but himself, and he’s right in that he might have to pay his penance a bit going forward unfairly on borderline plays. For proof of this, check out the Bengals’ prior meeting with the Steelers on Dec. 13, when Burfict was playing out of control, and the league hammered him later with fines for it.

Little Burfict has done in the past has been open to interpretation — this reputation didn’t come from thin air. His hits helped cement Burfict as one of the dirtier players in the league.

But also one of the best at his position. The Bengals are a good team, and they’ve stood behind their playmaking linebacker because he’s a big part — for better or worse — of what they do. This is a roster capable of making a Super Bowl run if he and his teammates learn some composure in big spots (especially against the Steelers) and get a few bounces go their way.

If Burfict changes his ways, he could be a bigger force. If not, it might force the team or the NFL to take even more drastic measures to make him change.