The Bengals hadn't won a playoff game since 1990, but they were about 20 seconds from doing so in the Steelers-Bengals Wildcard playoff contest two weekends ago. That is, until Vontaze Burfict melted down into his purest form during the moments of the Steelers' final shreds of hope, and quite literally cost his team a crucial playoff victory.

If it weren't for Burfict driving his shoulder through the defenseless head of Antonio Brown in the final seconds of the forenamed contest (and boy, it was ugly), that streak may have been broken. The egregious hit drew a personal foul penalty, ensued commotion, and sparked the temperamental antics of his teammate, Pacman Jones, who drew yet another personal foul penalty that set up an eventual game winning 35-yard field goal attempt for the Steelers.

Remarkably, about 60 game clock seconds prior to this brutal meltdown, Burfict was about to become the ultimate hero of the game when he quelled what everyone believed to be the Steelers' final chance at a comeback as he intercepted a poorly thrown Landry Jones pass, who was filling in for an injured Ben Roethlisberger. Little did everybody know, Burfict was about to become the ultimate villain.

In all fairness, though, the Bengals had it coming. In that very moment, they received exactly what they bargained for when they took a chance on Burfict after he went undrafted out of Arizona State due to the red flags raised by the deficiencies in his college career and combine process, highlighted in this excerpt from his NFL Combine scouting report:

"You would be hard-pressed to find a player whose on-field discipline issues had such a negative effect on draft status as Burfict's have affected him this year. He is capable of being the physical inside presence for an NFL defense, but not many coaches are going to have the patience to deal with personal foul penalties like the coaches did at ASU where, frankly, Burfict was the only option inside."

Knowing what we know now about Burfict's NFL career, and especially after the aforementioned debacle during a primetime playoff match-up in front of a national audience, his scouting report just really doesn't do his behavior justice. Nowhere in the report does it mention anything remotely comparable to the damage Burfict's one-man wrecking crew has done to the NFL. Even so, franchises were well aware of some of the things he did during his career as a Sun Devil and the risks that came along with the investment in a player whose character falls within such questionable nature.

Some players with red flags coming out of college are able to clean up their acts to establish themselves in good standing with the league's code of conduct, but Burfict hasn't shown much progress yet in his short NFL career. He has been fined on multiple occasions for violating player safety rules, or in layman's terms, dirty play, which is a label whose application has been long overdue for a player like Burfict. His hit on Brown is just the latest addition to a laundry list of offenses. Last year, he was fined $25,000 for twisting the ankles of Cam Newton and Greg Olsen in a game against the Carolina Panthers.

About a month ago, he was fined just under $70,000 for three separate incidents in a game against, you guessed it, the Pittsburgh Steelers (Burfict "hates Pittsburgh"). Including this unnecessary roughness penalty drawn for a late, low dive at the ankles of Ben Roethlisberger.

For the hit on Brown coupled with other incidents as investigated by the league including this unnecessary hit to the head/neck area of Maxx Williams, Burfict was suspended for the first three regular season games of the 2016 regular season without pay.

I could go on and on highlighting examples of why Burfict is a danger to the league, but I won't because I think it is pretty clear that there is a pattern of unbecoming behavior here. Maybe a suspension will make Burfict rethink his tactics, but for the moment, the fact of the matter remains that Vontaze Burfict, when healthy and able to take to the football field in a Cincinnati Bengals uniform, is a hazard not only to his opponents but also to himself, his teammates, and the National Football League as a whole.

The Bengals saw this fact in full display when Burfict all but kicked the game winning field goal himself to seal the Steelers' victory, and so long as the Bengals are his employer, they will have to manage the risks associated with the type of behavior that he embodies, should he prove incapable of reconditioning himself. Teammates and coaches can and should be held accountable, but only to a certain extent. At some point, you have no choice but to question the motivation of the Bengals' front office by continuing to put up with such a controversial act in the locker room. As the NFL's current poster boy for player safety infractions, the perception of Burfict and the Bengals around the league probably won't be seen in a positive light anytime soon, and the league will surely monitor Burfict closely for any further violations.

At what point will the owners be willing to step in and stop the bleeding of the team's image? Burfict may be a skilled player, but the NFL, at the end of the day, is a business. Coming from somebody who has watched Burfict extensively throughout his career, I'm dumbfounded as to why the Bengals have put up with him for so long. The Bengals have other questionable players on their roster too, but those names are beside the point right now. Then again, my fan allegiance lies with a team that has a history of having a notoriously short leash for player misconduct, so perhaps my judgment is a bit clouded. Nonetheless, there isn't much doubt in the minds of NFL fans that Burfict dropped the proverbial ball on the Bengals' playoff hopes this year, and for that, they will be forced to watch the rest of the playoffs from home.

Sure, football is a violent, emotional game, one that may even be effectively characterized by considering Burfict's personality. But for a second, throw out the grit and grind of football. Forget about the violent hits, the exertion of unbounded masculinity, and the mantra of physically dominating opponents. How does Burfict, in light of his behavior as an inside linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, stack up against society not as a football player, but as a person? Just what type of man is he? He's never been in trouble with the law (although he did test positive for marijuana at the NFL Combine), but some of his actions on the field can be considered downright criminal and would warrant assault charges outside the confines of a professional football game. That's not the type of brush with which I'd prefer to paint myself, even if that shade of paint is considered beneficial in my line of work.

As a role model and ambassador of the National Football League, Burfict flat out misrepresents the middle linebacker position. What types of lessons does he teach to kids coming through their Pop Warner years that idolize his style of play? Despite the game's popular depiction, football is not a lawless game of unabated savagery. Players at that age don't know any better, and knowing that they look up to the stars they see on TV, Burfict must set a better example. He doesn't have any children of his own, so maybe that perspective hasn't entered into his mindset just yet. Regardless, it would be deplorable to allow young players to replicate Burfict's on-field conduct. His smeared image has a ripple effect that spans much further than just the professional level of the sport. Children are not grown men, and grown men are not children.

Hopefully his suspension will serve as a wake-up call, and maybe it will force him to rehabilitate himself, though I have my doubts. The league will not tolerate bad apples, and if we're being honest, his vilifying has been a long time coming. This scenario runs deeper than football, though, and there's a lot at stake other than lost wages and football games. Burfict hurts his opponents, plain and simple. In fact, he was responsible for injuring three Steelers this year alone (something I wasn't very happy about). But when it's all said and done, and he shows his true colors, he hurts a heck of a lot more than just his opponents. That wrath, for the sake of the goodness of the game of football, needs to be stopped. After all, it's just football.