Vontaze Burfict was suspended for the remainder of the 2019 season after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Colts tight end Jack Doyle last week. It was just the latest incident from him in a string of super violent hits that pretty much left the league with no choice but to drop the hammer on him.
According to Jason La Canfora, the Oakland Raiders linebacker’s suspension for the rest of the season is likely to be upheld. La Canfora reports Burfict has been warned repeatedly by the league beyond just formal fines and letters.
“There is not another defensive player in the game who has anything close to his history with violent and unsafe play,” said one source within the league office per La Canfora. “There isn’t anything else like it. And it has to stop.”
On top of his hit to Jack Doyle, the league also found another helmet-to-helmet hit during its review of last week’s Raiders vs Colts game that will also be factored into Burfict’s appeal.
“Hmmmm… I wonder how many other players they’ve done that for in the last two or three years,” Burfict’s agent Lamont Smith told Rapoport.
“It’s different when someone is trying to make a football play, not a deliberate act where someone is trying to hurt an opponent,” Smith said. “Haynesworth was trying to hurt someone and he got five games.”
The 29-year-old, who signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Raiders, has appeared in four games and recorded 18 tackles and a pass defense.
