Antoine Winfield Jr. Says Taunting Tyreek Hill Was 'Something That I Had to Do'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. may be a rookie, but he isn't afraid to dish out some well-timed revenge trash talk to one of the league's best wide receivers when he has the chance.

In the closing minutes of Tampa Bay's 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's Super Bowl, Winfield taunted Tyreek Hill by flashing the receiver's trademark peace sign. 

The safety said it went back to Kansas City's regular season win over the Buccaneers:

Not only did Winfield throw up the peace sign, he finished with six tackles, two passes defended and an interception while capping his brilliant rookie season with a Super Bowl victory. The Minnesota product tallied 94 tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception during the regular season.

The inability to contain Hill was a major reason Tampa Bay lost to the Chiefs during the regular season.

The speedster posted 13 catches for 269 yards and three touchdowns in that one but had a pedestrian seven catches for 73 yards on Sunday. Keeping him in check was one of a number of ways Tampa Bay's defense controlled the game and set the tone throughout the victory.

Frankly, an offense with Patrick Mahomes under center failing to score a single touchdown in the Super Bowl is almost unbelievable even if the offensive line was banged up, so the Buccaneers defense deserves all the praise it will get after winning the Lombardi Trophy.

It also earned the right to talk some trash, and Winfield took advantage of that.