Burfict was not in the locker room Wednesday during the period open to the media, and Bengals coach Marvin Lewis and defensive coordinator Paul Guenther declined comment.
“I don’t coach ankle twisting, so I don’t know,” Guenther said.
The NFL doesn’t officially announce fines until Friday.
Carolina coach Ron Rivera said Monday he would be sending some plays to the NFL for review, and Panthers tight end Greg Olsen called for Burfict to be suspended rather than just fined.
Olsen, who was listed as questionable on the injury report prior to the game with an ankle injury, was one of the players Burfict was accused of trying to hurt. The other was quaterback Cam Newton, who had offseason ankle surgery.
“Vontaze plays with great emotion,” Bengals cornerback Adam Jones said. “I don’t think he should have been fined $25,000. Like I’ve said before, this league is all about what you guys put out there in the media. So when those guys go talking about this and that, they have to respond. It is what it is. I think Vontaze will take that one on the chin and it can’t change the way he plays.”
Lewis and Guenther disagreed, saying Burfict has to make changes after drawing three penalties that gave Carolina first downs, two of which were 15-yarders.
“We can’t have the penalties because that’s not what we coach, and we don’t condone it, either,” Guenther said. “He plays hard, and I’m never going to take that away from him because that’s who he is. But he’s got to watch what he’s doing. He’s on the list.”
Burfict drew a team-high 14 penalties last year, including eight for unnecessary roughness to go along with a 15-yard facemask call. He shares the team lead with four penalties this year despite playing only three games, two of which he left early with concussions.
Asked if he was worried about Burfict’s future not only as a football player, but as a man, because of the concussions, Lewis had a surprising answer.
“I coached defense and linebackers for a long time and concussions didn’t linger,” he said. “Now we’ve found that because of the media and things they seem to linger longer. There’s a lot of attention paid to it. I don’t know why they linger longer, but I don’t remember them lingering like they do now.”
Burfict left Sunday’s game after suffering another blow to the head, but he was cleared by doctors and returned to action a short time later. Four plays after returning, he drew a personal foul penalty for hitting Panthers wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin in the head.
“He just needs to play football,” Lewis said. “That’s our message to everyone — just play football and continue to play within the rules, because the rules are what they are. We don’t need anything extra at any point any time from anyone.”
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