ALAMEDA, Calif. -- There was still some 90 minutes until kickoff when Vontaze Burfict spied his first tackle, er, target, chatting people up on the sidelines.
It was Jan. 5, 2013, and Burfict still had Mike Mayock's scathing assessment of him as a college player ringing in his ears: "I watched three tapes and really didn't like him as a football player ... he's a non-draftable kid." So Burfict made a beeline for Mayock, who was in Houston that weekend to call the playoff game between the Houston Texans and Burfict's Cincinnati Bengals, to give him a piece of his mind.