Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones insists that Steelers receiver Antonio Brown was faking when he fell to the ground after being hit by Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict on Saturday. But Jones is willing to at least leave room for the possibility that he could be wrong.
In an interview set to air tonight on Inside the NFL, Jones said he will apologize to Brown if Brown can’t play this weekend against the Broncos. However, Jones said he’s very confident that Brown will be cleared through the NFL’s concussion policy and will play against the Broncos, because he remains very confident that Brown is faking.
“I will, if he don’t play,” Jones said. “But you know and I know that when Saturday gets here, all that will go out the window. . . . He will be cleared Friday, I promise you.”
Jones is wrong about one thing: The Steelers-Broncos game is on Sunday, not Saturday.
And Jones is surely wrong about Brown faking. Whether Brown is cleared through the concussion protocol or not, there’s little doubt that he took a hard hit to the head from Burfict, and that hit was a violation of the NFL’s rules on hitting defenseless receivers. Whether Jones agrees with the rule or not, Burfict deserved the penalty.