Violence & Brawls ·
Two Late Penalties, a Winning Kick—and a Concussion
Burfict’s illegal hit on Antonio Brown and Jones’s confrontation with Porter set up Pittsburgh’s wild-card victory. NFL discipline followed, and Brown missed the next playoff game.
Antonio Brown was being attended to by Steelers trainers when another confrontation compounded the damage from Vontaze Burfict’s illegal hit. Pittsburgh assistant coach Joey Porter had come onto the field; Cincinnati cornerback Adam Jones engaged with him and drew a 15-yard penalty. Added to Burfict’s 15-yard penalty for hitting Brown, it gave Pittsburgh 30 yards in the closing moments of the Jan. 9, 2016, AFC wild-card game. Chris Boswell then made a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds left, giving Pittsburgh an 18–16 victory.
Only minutes earlier, Burfict had helped put the Bengals in position to win. His interception of backup quarterback Landry Jones with 1:36 remaining gave Cincinnati the ball. But Bengals running back Jeremy Hill then lost it: After a six-yard run, Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier stripped the ball, and safety Ross Cockrell recovered. Pittsburgh had another possession.
Burfict’s shoulder-to-head hit left Brown with a concussion. The penalties that followed were separate acts, with separate responsibility: Burfict was penalized for the hit; Jones was penalized after engaging with Porter.
The game featured seven personal fouls, but the final sequence was not one uninterrupted fight. Earlier, Burfict had knocked Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger out of the game with a hit that USA TODAY Sports described as brutal but legal. Roethlisberger suffered a sprained throwing shoulder. The hit on Brown, by contrast, was illegal.
On Jan. 11, the NFL suspended Burfict for the first three games of the 2016 season, citing “repeated violations of safety-related playing rules.” His agent said he was expected to appeal; the supplied accounts do not establish the appeal’s outcome. The league also fined Jones $28,940 for making contact with an official as he went after Porter, and fined Porter $10,000 for his role in the confrontation.
The consequences extended beyond Cincinnati’s elimination and the league discipline. Brown’s concussion kept him out of Pittsburgh’s divisional playoff game. The Steelers had advanced; the receiver injured in the sequence that helped them win was unavailable for their next game.