Injured Carolina Panthers defensive end Brian Burns described a recent incident involving himself and New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones as "some bull" and is wishing all his fellow defensive ends "happy hunting" when facing the rookie.
In Week 9, Burns strip-sacked Jones on a play during the first quarter of the Patriots' 24-6 victory at Carolina on Sunday, November 7, which resulted in Jones grabbing Burns' ankle and twisting it as Panthers teammate Frankie Luvu recovered the fumble.
Burns appeared to grab his ankle during the play and sat out several plays before returning and later re-aggravating his ankle in the fourth quarter. Jones was not penalized for the incident.
“As soon as I sacked him, he grabbed my arm, and my arm was trapped,” Burns said during his press conference Wednesday (November 10) via the Panthers' verified Twitter account. “And then once I got my arm free, I tried to run, obviously, and he grabbed my ankle. And at that point, I just remember going down and my ankle was hurt.
“But then watching the replay and then watching all the angles and everything that they’ve got, I think it’s some bull. My main thing is that he took his legs and he swept the one leg that I had up. I think it’s some bull."
Jones claimed he grabbed Burns' ankle because he thought he, not Luvu, recovered the fumble, but Burns isn't buying it.
“Even if you thought I had the ball, it’s not legal to trip somebody or to leg-sweep somebody, let alone twist ankles,” Burns said. “It’s not legal to do that. And everybody else ran past us. If I had the ball, don’t you think I’d be getting tackled or your teammate would help? So I don’t think it’s cool, but it’s whatever.”
Burns confirmed -- with a chuckle -- that neither Jones nor Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had reached out to apologize since the incident took place.
“They’re not going to hit me up,” Burns said. “… It would be nice to have an apology. It would be nice to have an apology, but it’s not going to happen. However, the NFL handles it is on them. I would just like to play them again."
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