Vontaze Burfict Handed Record Season-Long Suspension

Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict won’t play for the rest of the 2019 season after being suspended by the NFL.

Vontaze Burfict has been suspended for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle on Sunday. It was a dirty hit, reminiscent of the old NFL, and he was ejected for it at the time.

The punishment is severe but not unexpected given Burfict’s history. Vontaze Burfict has been suspended twice for excessive roughness, in 2016 and 2017. As well as that, he was suspended in 2018 for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancing drugs.

As a result, the league slapped him with the longest-ever suspension for an on-field incident. 

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NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan wrote a letter to Burfict in which he explained the decision.

“There were no mitigating circumstances on this play,” the letter said. 

“Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant and should have been avoided. For your actions, you were penalized and disqualified from the game. Following each of your previous rule violations, you were warned by me and each of the jointly-appointed officers that future violations would result in escalated accountability measures. However, you have continued to flagrantly abuse rules designated to protect yourself and your opponents from unnecessary risk.”

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After the game, coach Jon Gruden referenced the stricter rules this season. He seemed resigned to a big punishment for Burfict.

“It’s a tough decision, it’s a tough call. I think it was a flag,” Jon Gruden said.

“It was very well-documented that the league was going to review those plays this year in New York City. So that’s what happened and I’ll wait to hear what their reasoning was. But it was a penalty, he went in there with his head down, it was called and, unfortunately for us, it was an ejection.”