The Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict has been suspended for the remainder of the 2019 season for his helmet-to-helmet on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle, the league announced Monday.
Below is the video of the helmet-to-helmet hit delivered by Burfict to Doyle, showing Burfict lead with the crown of his helmet to the helmet of Doyle who is down on his knees.
This is the hit that got Vontaze Burfict ejected and suspended for the rest of the season. Clearly Jack Doyle is a defenseless receiver on his knees and Burfict still targets his head.. disgusting pic.twitter.com/HVG2MDnaA8
— Awful Sports News (@AwfulSportsNews) September 30, 2019
The 12-game suspension of Burfict is the longest on-field related suspension in NFL history, but should not come as a surprise given Burfict’s continued violation of the leagues player safety rules.
NFL VP of football operations Jon Runyan issued the following in a statement to Burfict regarding his suspension:
“Following each of your previous rule violations, you were warned by me and each of the jointly-appointed appeal 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.”
Long viewed as one of the dirtiest players in the league, this suspension marks Burfict’s fourth in his career, three that were on-field related.
2018: four games for violation of NFL’s PED policy
2017: three games for hit to defenseless receiver
2016: three games for violation of player safety rules
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has stated Burfict does intend to appeal the 12-game suspension.
My take: I’m really glad the NFL decided to take a stand and finally hold Burfict accountable for his careless reckless actions and suspend him the rest of the season.
There is no doubt Burfict is the dirtiest player in the league and time after time he continues to show no regard for the safety of other players, clearly evident by his love for helmet-to-helmet contact to defenseless players. My dude, you can’t even defend that awful hit on Jack Doyle!
The 12-game suspension will likely get reduced on appeal, but let’s hope the league keeps that same energy with this standard and protect’s the players.
Photo credit: Cincinnati.com
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