The NFL announced Monday that Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict has been suspended for the rest of this season without pay. This comes after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle.
The play resulted in a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, as well as Burfict’s ejection from the game.
When you watch the play the hit on Doyle isn’t excessively malicious, but it definitely warranted an ejection. But when you take into account Burfict’s history with these types of plays, the suspension is easily justifiable.
Now in just his eighth season in the NFL, Burfict has already lost more than $5 million due to suspensions and fines from illegal hits. Even with all that money lost, Burfict’s play hasn’t changed.
Some argue that Burfict should never play another down in the NFL, while others think a suspension of any kind is unwarranted. Surprisingly, I think the NFL got this one spot on.
Doyle thankfully got up from the play in question uninjured, but the hit by Burfict is still unacceptable. Doyle was already to a knee when he caught a pass from quarterback Jacoby Brissett, so all Burfict had to do was fall on him.
Instead, Burfict lowered his shoulders and led with his helmet right into Doyle’s helmet. That’s simply not okay.
The suspensions on these type of hits should be like the Major League Baseball’s stance on performance enhancing drugs. The more you violate the rules, the larger the punishment becomes. That seems to be what happened with Burfict.
This incident is the latest of a long list of dirty plays from Burfict, and the time was past due for a suspension of this length. If Burfict comes back next year and continues to play the way he has, a lifetime ban should be on the table.
The decision didn’t come without scrutiny however. Fellow Raider Tahir Whitehead took to Twitter after the news of his teammate’s suspension broke on Monday.
“This is straight bullshit,” Whitehead said on Twitter. “No way that hit calls for that. This shit is getting out of hand.”
Now he is right in saying that hit alone does not call for a whole season out of the league, but that would only apply if Burfict was a first or even second-time offender.
Another common argument against the suspension of Burfict was the punishments of some other dirty plays from around the NFL in week four. These include knockout blows from New England Patriots’ Johnathon Jones and Philadelphia Eagles’ Derek Barnett, neither of which led to an ejection.
These hits were much more malicious than Burfict’s and absolutely warrant a harsher punishment than what was handed down. But comparing those hits to that of Burfict doesn’t make him any less guilty.
If you want to argue those guys should be subject to suspension as well as Burfict, that would be reasonable. But trying to clear his name because others are playing dirty is not the way to go.
Burfict has proven time and again that he isn’t worried about his opposition’s safety and is willing to miss time to continually put players in harm. The game isn’t getting “soft” because the NFL is doing what it can to eliminate head injuries, and I invite anyone who says that is the case to take a helmet-to-helmet hit from an NFL linebacker.
Burfict’s suspension is completely warranted and if his game doesn’t change when he comes back, I think it’s time to ban him from the game entirely.
