Vontaze Burfict's cheap low hit on Big Ben costs him a heavy fine

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

Ben Roethlisberger didn't like a low hit from Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict last Sunday, and it turns out the NFL wasn't pleased with it either.

Burfict seemed to dive at Roethlisberger's legs in the first half last week. The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback spoke out about it, saying he thought Burfict intentionally went low on him. The NFL agreed and fined Burfict $34,700 for that hit, and about $70,000 overall for three violations according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

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The Bengals-Steelers game was heated. There was a pregame fight that probably stemmed from Steelers linebacker Vince Williams making threats toward Burfict on Twitter after the first meeting. Then Burfict, who has a history of temper issues dating back to Arizona State (he went undrafted due to off-field red flags despite his enormous talent), tried to take out Roethlisberger's legs on a pass rush.

"I think that he definitely was diving in low and going for my legs,” Roethlisberger told Sportsradio 93-7 earlier this week.

Roethlisberger also said during the interview that there was more "quote unquote, kind of dirty, extracurricular stuff throughout the game" than he had ever been a part of in a game.

Burfict had a couple unnecessary roughness incidents to go with the low hit on Roethlisberger. And because of some questionable plays, Burfict has to write a huge check to the NFL.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!