Foster rips league over Burfict
“Are they doing enough? Absolutely not,” Foster said. “[Burfict] has a known history. They’re going to say he’s getting targeted because of his history. But he’s getting new cases against him. What are Roger Goodell and [his staff] saying about player safety? They’re not saying anything about it. You have a known repeat offender getting a $75,000 fine when he has a $20 million contract. That [fine] doesn’t matter to him. You fine [Antonio Brown] more for freaking dancing in the end zone than you do when you know for sure that [Burfict] tried to do that. His history showed he tried to do that.
“It just wasn’t the instances in that game. There are other instances that happened that they didn’t document — stepping on shoelaces and instigating stuff. They don’t give a [darn] about that. Roger Goodell really needs to come off his high horse and do something about that.”
Burfict has a longer history than Suh, especially against the Steelers. Burfict celebrated last fall when Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell had a seasonending knee injury. He also dived at the legs of Roethlisberger in a game in Cincinnati after the play was over and was accused by several Steelers of spitting on them. In the AFC wild-card game, Burfict’s head shot on Brown knocked the receiver out of the game and the next week’s playoff game in Denver.
That hit and many other questionable ones over the years earned Burfict a threegame suspension that he served at the beginning of the season.
Foster said there is a difference in the dirty play of Suh and Burfict.
“I’ll live with Suh way more than I would with Burfict,” Foster said.
“Burfict is trying to injure guys. I still think his celebration on the tackle with Le’Veon [last year] shows he’s trying to injure guys. It changed the whole complexion of that game. It’s on film. They see it. But Goodell doesn’t give a [darn] about that. He’s more worried about the ratings dropping and the owners fattening his pockets. He knows that type of attention brings more viewers for a Cincinnati game.”
Shazier expects to play
The Steelers received some good news on the injury front Thursday. Ryan Shazier, who missed the past three games with a knee injury, was a full participant in practice and said he expects to play against the Patriots.
Safeties Mike Mitchell and Robert Golden also returned as full practice participants after being limited Wednesday with knee and foot injuries.
Right tackle Marcus Gilbert (ankle), receiver Markus Wheaton (shoulder) and running back DeAngelo Williams (knee) did not practice for a second consecutive day.
The backup plan
Zach Mettenberger has been with the Steelers for less than two months, but he’ll be the backup Sunday behind Landry Jones. Mettenberger played previously for the Tennessee Titans, where he started 10 games as a rookie in 2014. He spent time with the San Diego Chargers this summer before they released him.
“Any given week we get the menu,” Mettenberger said. “Obviously, I like some plays Landry might like and vice versa, but there’s not strictly a menu for the backup quarterback.
“The big thing here is it does happen, if I do have to go into the game, I can just lean on the playmakers in this locker room. That starts up front trusting those guys. And obviously having [Bell] and [Brown] makes the quarterback’s job a lot easier.”