Vontaze Burfict's flop is a thing of infuriating beauty

Old-school football fans will tell you what they love about the National Football League is the fact that it’s good old-fashioned hard-nosed smashmouth game, with none of that flailing-arms flopping you see in soccer or basketball.

Vontaze Burfict, then, makes for a bit of a problem for the NFL-as-tough-guy-haven argument. Against Baltimore and Steve Smith Sr. on Sunday, Burfict reacted to a first-quarter jab from Smith by flopping as if he’d been smacked with a two-by-four.

Perhaps Burfict, after getting suspended for the first three games of this season and fined $75,000 in October for two separate incidents, has decided that playing victim is the better way to go. Perhaps Burfict was just trying to get the ever-talkative (and infuriating) Smith out of the game. (The flop did draw an unnecessary roughness call on Smith.) Either way … come on, dude.

It’s also apparently not the first time we’ve seen a Bengal pursue this strategy:

Flops should be grounds for immediate ejection. No gray area.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.