DAVIE, Fla. – The Miami Dolphins don't play the archrival New York Jets again this year, yet the barbs keep coming.
Three days after the Dolphins' emotional 30-9 road win against the Jets, Miami running back Reggie Bush revisited his feud with cornerback Antonio Cromartie. Following a succession of verbal jabs last week between the teams, Bush gave Cromartie a vicious stiff-arm in the first quarter that set the tone for the rout.
After the game, Cromartie called Bush a punk who showed "his true colors."
"I've been called a lot of things, but not a punk," Bush said with a laugh on Wednesday. "I don't feel like I did anything illegal. I didn't try to hurt him. I didn't talk about hurting him or ending his career or anything like that. What I did was perfectly within the rules, and if he didn't like it, it's tough. That's football. I've been on the side of some ugly stuff. The last thing I'm going to do is cry about it and call somebody a punk."
The latest round of feuding dates to Week 3, before the teams' first meeting, when New York coach Rex Ryan said his Jets needed to put "hot sauce" on the playmaking Bush, who later hurt his knee in the game. Bush took offense to the comments, and implied the Jets were out to intentionally hurt him.
Last week, Cromartie called Bush's comments unprofessional.
Bush said he didn't specifically target Cromartie for the stiff-arm.
"It really didn't matter who it was," Bush said. "It just happened to be him. It could have been the kicker. He would have got it the same way. We wanted to establish an aggressive approach early on, and I felt that was a way to do it.
"If they don't like me, I guess, tough."
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