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It wouldn’t be an NFL season without a Vontaze Burfict suspension, right?
Well, good news is the new league year has officially commenced with the troubled Cincinnati Bengals linebacker’s 4-game Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) being upheld after his appeal.
#Bengals LB Vontaze Burfict has been suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2018 regular season for violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 12, 2018
Burfict, who claimed he took a banned substance from a team physician after JuJu Smith-Schuster’s hit gave him a concussion, was adamant of his innocence in this situation. Nonetheless, the league office clearly didn’t see it the same way.
Burfict has now been suspended in a number of ways throughout his career. He has been suspended for his play on the field several times, but this is his first incident off the field which has him on the wrong side of the NFL law.
What should come to the forefront of Pittsburgh Steelers fans’ minds is whether or not the team will be scheduled to play the Bengals within the first four games of the regular season. The last time Burfict missed the first four games of the regular season the league had the two heated rivals play in the first quarter of the season — likely to avoid the ugliness which seems to follow when Burfict ever faces off against the Steelers.
Stay tuned to BTSC for the latest on this story, and others involving the black-and-gold.