Long overdue: Burfict Suspended for 2019 season

Photo Courtesy of RSHighlights ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvWoYVncPqE

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-​It has been a long time coming but Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict has officially been suspended for the 2019-2020 season after a late helmet-to-helmet hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle.

If the suspension is upheld, Burfict will have been suspended a total of twenty-two games, dating back to 2012, when Burfict entered the league as an un-drafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals.

The first thing that comes to mind with Burfict, dirty player! Now, the league has gone a bit soft but whenever it comes to a helmet-to-helmet hit, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE, gets thrown around.

Now, I personally do not mind the suspension. The league needed to make an example out of someone and that player just happened to be Burfict.

Now, let us take a stroll down memory lane and a few of the hits that landed Burfict in hot water. In the closing seconds of the 2016 wild card match-up against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Antonio Brown ran a route to the middle of the field, only to end up with a concussion by Burfict. The hit would put the Steelers into field goal range ultimately winning the game. Maybe that is what caused Brown's unorthodox behavior in the subsequent seasons.

During a preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 season, Burfict was suspended three games for a hit on a defenseless receiver, fullback Anthony Sherman.
Burfict has also hit a player in the groin, stepped on a running back, twisted ankles, dove at the knees of a quarterback and flipped the bird to Buffalo Bills fans. Not to mention a suspension regarding performance-enhancing drugs.

According to the New York Post, with all of his antics, including suspensions, Burfict has lost a total of $5,355,649.

Whether Burfict wins his appeal, or returns next year, he will be closely kept an eye on because when it is all set and done, Burfict no doubt, will go down as one of the dirtiest players to play the game.

Ephraim Hernandez

B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications; New Mexico State University