Burfict breaks silence on Brown hit, suspension

Vontaze Burfict's interview with ESPN's Josina Anderson aired this morning, and it the Bengals linebacker says he wasn't trying to hurt Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown on the hit in the wild-card playoff loss that led to his three-game suspension.

"I led with my shoulder and tried to pull up at the last second because I seen that he didn't catch the ball," Burfict tells Anderson. "But his momentum and my momentum kind of carried me to hit him in the helmet. You see his head duck down at the last second. I think that was the force that he felt. If he would have kept his head upright, I probably would never even hit him. I feel bad about that play because I hurt my teammates, my coaches."

Burfict said if he sees Brown in person he will tell him he didn't try to hurt him, but he also said he is not going to apologize after Brown called him an idiot.

Brown suffered a concussion on the play and had to sit out the Pittsburgh loss at Denver in the divisional round of the playoffs the following week.

Burfict also talked about his meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell as he tried to appeal his suspension.

"One question he asked me, 'How do you feel about your opponents when they get hurt?'" Burfict said. "I said in the moment, you can't care about your opponent because if you care about them, you're going to mess up your assignment. But his info was I have to care about my opponent. I understand where he's coming from because if you care about your opponent, you'll probably play cleaner.

"There was warnings," Burfict added as he characterized the meeting. "They were just telling me they don't want this to happen again, I hope this is the last time we have to meet. "

Burfict also denied that he tried to twist the ankles of Carolina quarterback Cam Newton and tight end Greg Olsen in a 2014 game that led to a $25,000 fine.

"I have to change with the game," he said. "I play hard. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. I'm going to lower my penalties and be that leader that I am. I'm not that troubled guy that everyone think I am. But they portray me as a bad guy, that thug. But they're wrong."

Click here to watch the entire interview.

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