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Dunlap: Memo To NFL – Schedule Steelers & Bengals For Week 4

I love Twitter.

I love outspokenness.

So you better believe I love what happened between Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams and Bengals linebacker/perpetual knucklehead Vontaze Burfict over the past day or so on the interwebs.

It was passionate.

It was beautiful.

It was exactly why social media was invented.

It was also a sign that this Steelers and Bengals rivalry is 100 percent legitimate dislike.

In my opinion, it should also lead to the NFL capitalizing to the max, but we will get to that in a moment.

First, however, the thumbnail of what happened …

Williams --- who has had a meteoric rise to among the Steelers' most chatty players when it comes to smack talk --- told ESPN the other day that Burfict's cheap hit on star receiver Antonio Brown in the playoffs cost the Steelers a Super Bowl run.

Burfict got wind of it, took to Twitter and shamefully called Williams a backup, insulted him for being hurt and congratulated him for an inability to allow the Bengals linebacker to escape his mind --- even as we are four months removed from the playoff game between the teams.

Williams --- the undeniable winner of this little Twitter mêlée --- responded in kind on social media with (accurate) insults about how Burfict costs his team games, telling him to enjoy his vacation (suspension), agreeing that Le'Veon Bell is a total stud and reminding Burfict he has an "inability to control yourself" that holds the linebacker back.

It was all wonderful Internet theatre with Williams coming off as the clear-cut sharper knife in the drawer and overall winner.

But back to that part now about how the NFL can capitalize to the max and really be the sharpest faction in all of this.

It's simple. Make out the schedule where the Steelers and Bengals play a prime time game in Week 4.

You want ratings? There it is.

You want real, true, passionate dislike? There it is.

You want the whole football-watching world to talk about that matchup from about four days before that game clear all the way through the kick off of the games the following week? There it is.

You want all of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati whipped into a rage perhaps never seen before, seething at each other with abhorrence that would make the Hatfields and McCoys step back and take notice? There it is.

You get that, NFL.

You hear what I'm saying?

Schedule the first meeting of the Steelers and Bengals for Week 4 this season.

That's the first week Burfict --- made to serve a three-game suspension for his actions in that playoff game --- is eligible to come back.

There's no need to look at what happened on Twitter between Williams and Burfict and shy away from it if you're the NFL.

Instead, pump it up.

Capitalize on it.

Sell the hell out of it.

And show me these two teams that have a sincere disgust for each other in Week 4 ---- the very earliest the main villain in all of this, Vontaze Burfict, is able to do more than tweet.

Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can email him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.

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