NFL bans Raiders' Vontaze Burfict for rest of season after brutal tackle

The NFL has suspended Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict for the rest of the season for a gratuitous helmet-to-helmet hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle.

Burfict was ejected from Sunday’s game, which the Raiders won 31-24, for the hit but on Monday the league decided to take further action against a player with a rocky disciplinary history. The 29-year-old joined the Raiders this summer after seven seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, during which time he received 13 suspensions and fines. Two of the suspensions were for illegal hits, and the NFL cited Burfict’s history as part of the reason for the ban, which will extend to the playoffs, should the Raiders make the postseason.

“There were no mitigating circumstances on this play,” the NFL’s vice president of football operations, Jon Runyan, wrote in a letter to Burfict explaining his suspension. “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 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.”

Helmet-to-helmet hits, which can lead to both players receiving concussions, are taken particularly seriously by the NFL given the link between football and brain trauma.

Burfict’s head coach, Jon Gruden, spoke about the ejection of the linebacker, who is one of the team’s captains, after Sunday’s game. “It’s a tough decision, it’s a tough call. I think it was a flag,” Gruden said. “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 has three days to lodge an appeal against his suspension. He will not be paid during his ban. He was due to make $1.15m in salary this season, not including bonuses.