The NFL is putting its foot down when it comes to Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict’s continuous on-field antics.
The former Bengal, who was released after seven seasons before signing a one-year, $2 million contract with the Raiders in March, was suspended without pay for the rest of the season after he initiated a helmet-to-helmet hit on Colts tight end Jack Doyle, the league announced Monday.
The hefty punishment — which multiple reports say he plans to appeal — was prompted by the one-time Pro Bowler’s lengthy history of on-field offenses. Monday’s ban marked his 17th run-in with the league’s disciplinary office. He’s now been suspended four times, three times for on-field behavior. His minimum 12-game suspension latest would be the longest in NFL history for on-the-field transgressions.
It could be even longer if the 2-2 Raiders find their way into the playoffs.
Nine other players have received season-long suspensions for offenses like drugs, gambling, domestic abuse and vehicular manslaughter, among others, though the single longest suspension for something that happened during a game came in 2006 when then-Titans guard Albert Haynesworth got an unprecedented five-game ban for stomping on former Cowboys center Andre Gurode.
Three NFL players have been banned for life in league history, with Art Folz’s 1925 suspension for using high school players in a game being overturned a year later. Former Giants Frank Filchock and Merle Hapes were booted from the NFL for taking bribes in order to throw the 1946 Championship Game.
Current Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams — then with the New Orleans Saints — was suspended for the 2012 season along with head coach Sean Payton for their roles in the team’s bounty program, in which they offered prizes for injuring opposing players. Ex-Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma’s year-long ban for his involvement in “Bountygate” was later overturned.While most players and coaches who have felt the heaviest wrath of the NFL have found their way back into the game, the future for Burfict and his historic suspension are yet to be determined.