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Vontaze Burfict has Bengals' owner Mike Brown firmly in his corner

CINCINNATI — The three-game suspension of Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict gives detractors ample fodder to argue he is an undisciplined cheap-shot artist.

Team owner Mike Brown contends otherwise.

Brown admits that Burfict’s play must be better “controlled” upon his return starting with Thursday night’s home game against Miami. Brown, though, believes that the basis for Burfict’s suspension — five plays that violated NFL player-safety rules, with a concussion-inducing blow to Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown helmet in last season’s playoffs the final straw — was unjust.

“Some of what happened in the past looks different to different people,” Mike Brown told Sporting News in a Wednesday interview.