The Oakland Raiders linebacker was suspended Monday for the rest of the season without pay after his latest vicious headshot during Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. The suspension, which the NFL says is for “repeated violations of unnecessary roughness rules,” includes potential postseason games for the Raiders, who have 12 games left in the regular season. Burfict will appeal the suspension, according to multiple reports.
Burfict, who has a history of dirty plays throughout his NFL career, was ejected after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Colts tight end Jack Doyle after NFL officials in New York reviewed the play. Burfict, 29, has been suspended multiple times during his first seven seasons, all of which were with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Jon Runyan, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, wrote in a letter to Burfict, “There were no mitigating circumstances on this play. Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant and should have been avoided.”
Raiders coach Jon Gruden didn’t seem to think Burfict, who is a team captain, should’ve been ejected for the hit.
“I think it was penalized multiple times by multiple referees today. Nobody on the field in our stadium or in this zip code made the call to eject him. That came from New York City, so what can I do? I don’t have a cellphone on the field,” Gruden told reporters after the game.
“It’s a tough decision, it’s a tough call. I think it was a flag. 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.”
Burfict’s ejection came a week after he threw punches toward Vikings players at the end of a play, though none of them connected.