Unnecessary roughness: Raiders’ Vontaze Burfict suspended for remainder of season
Vontaze Burfict of the Oakland Raiders has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the 2019 season, as well as any postseason games, for repeated violations of unnecessary roughness rules, including in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
NFL Vice President of Football Operations Jon Runyan issued the suspension for a violation of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 10, which states that: “It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.”
In his letter to Burfict, Runyan wrote:
“There were no mitigating circumstances on this play. Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant and should have been avoided. For your actions, you were penalized and disqualified from the game.”
“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.”
“Your extensive history of rules violations is factored into this decision regarding accountability measures.”
Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the suspension may be appealed within three business days.
The 29-year-old linebacker played college ball for Arizona State. While there, he was benched in 2010 for head-butting the Oregon State quarterback.
After college, Burfict went on to play for the Cincinnati Bengals for seven years before signing a one-year, $5 million contract with the Raiders in 2019.
(Source: NFL)
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
