Like many people around here, I enjoy Sun Devil football quite a bit. We’ve had some great players making for a lot of fun at Sun Devil Stadium. Unfortunately, last year’s season was about as painful as I’d care to remember. Early in the season, there was a real feeling that it would be a great year and the team seemed to be playing at a high level.
Vontaze Burfict is one of those guys that seems to have mirrored the season. Early on in his college career, he had promise, the fans loved him, and you just knew the dude was gonna’ be a rock star. Unfortunately, his star seems to have faded quite a bit at the NFL combines. Shockingly, his attitude, poor play, and costly mistakes have given him a bad wrap with GMs that hold the multi-million dollar purse strings in the NFL.
In an AZCentral article titled “My reputation is wrong about me”, we learn that poor Vontaze is just misunderstood. He really isn’t a bad guy, after all.
While throwing the fans, coaches and his team mates under the bus, he starts out saying that he wants everyone to know that he’s not the guy we assume he is, we just have the wrong picture.
Vontaze shared a few of these nuggets to repair his reputation.
When asked about penalties that caused problems for the team, he brilliantly answers:
"I just love to hit," he said. "I hate to lose." – Really?
When asked about a locker room fight with a teammate, he says “everyone thinks I’m the bad guy because my first instinct was to swing on the guy." – Well, ok.
Vontaze regrets the fight and says he is trying to grow up a bit. “There are things you can’t do in business.” Actually, there are things you can’t / shouldn’t do in life, period.
Vontaze brilliantly talks about how the coaches didn’t help his career by stating “I could’ve played better. That’s what hurt me at times. The coaches kind of messed me up.” – How about playing in shape and playing to the best of your ability? THAT might have helped…
Thankfully, the article ends by stating the obvious…
“I just know I’m the best linebacker in this draft. I know I can get the job done."
Good luck, kid.
**Update: Bleacher Report says “Horrific Performance Bounces LB From First Round”**
Leave a Reply