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CINCINNATI (AP) — Linebacker Vontaze Burfict is back on the Cincinnati Bengals‘ active roster after serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancer policy.He’s glad to be back White Jonathan Jones Jerseys , even doing some work with special teams. He watched his teammates pull out a 37-36 win at Atlanta last Sunday on Andy Dalton’s touchdown pass to A.J. Green with 7 seconds left in regulation.“Of course, I missed it,” Burfict said before Friday’s practice. “My daughter came downstairs and said, ‘Daddy, we won.'”Burfict is expected to play Sunday when the Bengals (3-1) host Miami (3-1). Cincinnati is aiming to extend its best start since winning eight straight games in 2015.Burfict’s next snap will be his first of the season. He had an ankle injury that limited him during training camp, and he sat out all four preseason games before leaving the team for a month to serve his suspension.How much he’ll play is unknown, but he has a history of piling up snaps in similar circumstances.He was in for 36 plays against Pittsburgh in his first game in 2015 after missing six following knee surgery, 34 against the Dolphins in 2016 after missing three games following an NFL suspension for egregious hits, and 52 at Cleveland last season in his first game following another three-game NFL suspension for an egregious hit.“When you get out there, you want to be competitive,” said the former Arizona State player, who’s preparing for his seventh NFL season. “You don’t have to play every play. We’ve got enough good linebackers that it gives me a chance to get out for a couple of plays.”The Bengals activated Burfict after Friday’s practice. They hope he can shore up a defense that ranks 29th in the 32-team NFL in yards allowed and last in opponents’ third-down conversions while giving up the 10th-most points in the league.“I think we’ll be all right Jonathan Jones Jerseys 2019 ,” Burfict said. “Every game, there are always two or three plays that get messed up. Last year, the other teams wouldn’t score on those plays. This year, they’re scoring sometimes.”Burfict expects his biggest contribution might be his fiery personality — the same intensity that has led in the past to penalty-causing, suspension-inducing hits.“I’m a vocal leader,” he said. “I’ll add my little two cents. I think that can help.”Temperatures in the mid-80s are forecast for Paul Brown Stadium, which could affect Burfict’s stamina. But he believes the conditioning he maintained during the suspension will help him stay on the field. He also doesn’t anticipate needing much time to adjust to first-year defensive coordinator Teryl Austin’s system.“Football’s football,” he said. “The playbook’s the playbook. Your man is your man. His system is similar, but it’s different. You’ve got to get used to his calling of the game. It’s going to happen. It might take a couple of games.”BERNARD RULED OUT: Running back Giovani Bernard didn’t practice on Friday and was ruled out for Sunday’s game, leaving Joe Mixon with a bigger role in his return. Mixon missed the last two games following arthroscopic surgery to remove a cartilage chip from his right knee. He returned to practice this week. Receiver John Ross also was ruled out with a groin injury. Tight end Tyler Eifert went on injured reserve with a broken right ankle suffered Sunday at Atlanta. Less than a week after Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski retired, rank speculation regarding the reasons for his departure from the game has become the latest skirmish in the fight between doctors who jump to conclusions regarding brain trauma and those who have preached patience.Dr. Ann McKee, one of the leading CTE researchers White Ja’Whaun Bentley Jersey , has pounced on Gronk’s retirement as proof that concerns regarding Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy influence decisions regarding the duration of football careers.“I was relieved,” Dr, McKee told BU Today regarding her reaction to the news. “Reading between the lines about Rob Gronkowski, he鈥檚 had big hits. He鈥檚 read the headlines. He has said playing football abuses the body and abuses the brain.”That quote from Dr. McKee prompted a response on Twitter from Dr. Peter Cummings, a forensic pathologist and a neuropathologist who like Dr. McKee works at Boston University and who points out that his colleague is taking liberties with Gronk’s quote, and that he never said anything about football abusing the brain: “Abusing your body isn’t what your brain wants. When your body is abused, it can bring down your mood.”Here’s the full quote from Gronkowski, uttered days before what would be his final game:聽鈥淭he season鈥檚 a grind. It鈥檚 up and down. I鈥檓 not going to lie and sit here and say every week is the best.聽Not at all. You go up, you go down. You can take some serious hits. To tell you the truth, just try and imagine getting hit all the time and trying to be where you want to be every day in life. It鈥檚 tough, it鈥檚 difficult. To take hits to the thigh, take hits to your head. Abusing your body isn鈥檛 what your brain wants. When your聽body is abused Ja’Whaun Bentley Jersey 2019 , it can bring down your mood. You鈥檝e got聽to be able to deal with that, too, throughout the season. You gotta be able to deal with that in the games.鈥?#8220;I know he鈥檚 a goofball, but he鈥檚 intelligent,” Dr. McKee said of Gronkowski. “I think he does recognize that the brain is a very precious part of you, and you don鈥檛 get a second chance with it.”Regardless of whether CTE fears were a factor in Gronk’s decision-making process (I’d heard over a year ago that family members were pushing Gronk to quit due to concussion concerns, possibly fear stoked by the likes of Dr. McKee), Dr. McKee believes that players have begun to consider CTE when deciding whether to call it quits.“With the active players, there was this imaginary curtain — we鈥檙e not going to go there, not going to look at what might happen,” McKee said. “But now I do see players talking about CTE; they mention protecting their brain. And even if they don鈥檛 discuss CTE amongst themselves, they definitely are aware of it. They鈥檙e also getting more information from family members. CTE isn鈥檛 just a personal disease White Jason McCourty Jerseys , it affects the whole family. Players talk to their wives, girlfriends, parents, and their level of concern is higher than it used to be.”Of course it is, because of people like Ann McKee. That was precisely the point of last month’s article in , one of the leading peer-reviewed medical journals.鈥淯nfortunately, the uncertainties around the clinical syndrome and the pathological definition of CTE are not acknowledged adequately in much of the current research literature or related media reporting, which at times has resembled science by press conference,鈥?the article explained. 鈥淭oo often an inaccurate impression is portrayed that CTE is clinically defined, its prevalence is high, and pathology evaluation is a simple positive or negative decision. This distorted reporting on CTE might have dire consequences. Specifically, individuals with potentially treatable conditions Jason McCourty Jerseys 2019 , such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, might make decisions on their future on the basis of a misplaced belief that their symptoms inevitably herald an untreatable, degenerative brain disease culminating in dementia.鈥漈he message is clear: Doctors (including Dr. Ann McKee) still don’t know nearly enough about how people get CTE, what it means to have CTE, and what can happen to someone who has CTE. Vague, dire warnings about CTE cause unnecessary fear and confusion, with former players worried that they have a ticking time bomb in their brain and current players possibly walking away prematurely due to a subject that remains in the infant stage of its overall research and understanding. specifically warned that the “uncertainties” regarding CTE are not “acknowledged adequately,” and that some are engaged in “science by press conference.” For Dr. McKee, this time around it appears to be science by sit-down interview, with an effort to use Gronk’s retirement decision as the latest billboard for convincing more Chris Borlands to quit football long before they otherwise would, regardless of whether the actual science of CTE supports such decisions.