The NFL sent a powerful message Thursday: If you’re going to hit a defenseless receiver really hard in the head with the power of your entire 250-pound body, don’t do it in the closing minutes of a playoff game.
The league upheld Vontaze Burfict’s three-game suspension for the hit he delivered to Antonio Brown in the Bengals’ wild card round win over the Steelers, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
Source says Burfict, his agent and Bengals coach Mavin Lewis met today with Goodell and Troy Vincent, after appeal was denied.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) February 11, 2016
According to ESPN’s James Walker and Coley Harvey, Burfict will meet with commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss his history of illegal hits, which contributed to the length of his supension.
FILED TO ESPN: @ColeyHarvey and I report #Bengals LB Vontaze Burfict will meet w/Roger Goodell within a week to discuss hits and suspension.
— James Walker (@JamesWalkerNFL) February 11, 2016
Burfict’s three-game ban is a pretty dramatic punishment for an on-field offense. We commonly see players ejected for hits like Burfict’s and maybe even suspended a game, as with Odell Beckham Jr., but three games away from the field is about as extreme as it gets. This is ostensibly due to Burfict’s history of dirty hits, but the linebacker had never been suspended before, despite comparably barbaric hits, and a three-game ban represents a pretty steep jump up the NFL punishment gradient. Burfict’s collision with Maxx Williams in Week 17 earned him only a $50,000 fine but this one will cost him three games (and $500,000 in salary)?
Clearly, the severity of this suspension also has to do with the way Burfict embarrassed the NFL in a big situation with millions of people watching. After the Steelers beat the Bengals that night, all anyone could talk about was how foolish the Bengals made themselves look in the game’s final minutes and how brutal Burfict’s hit on Brown was.
So Burfict, who recorded 74 tackles last season, will miss the Bengals’ first three games, in a suspension that puts every NFL player on notice: Don’t take brutal cheap shots and especially don’t take brutal cheap shots when everyone is looking.
