Tim Benz: NFL is insane for reinstating Vontaze Burfict
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The National Football League is welcoming back longtime Steelers nemesis Vontaze Burfict.
The NFL deserves whatever comes next as a result of this decision.
Unfortunately, whatever player Burfict attacks next does not.
According to NFL.com, the former Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker quietly got reinstated by the NFL last month.
This comes after Burfict was suspended the final 12 games of last season for an illegal hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle.
The NFL has announced that Vontaze Burfict has been suspended for the remainder of the season for this hit on TE Jack Doyle on Sunday and other “repeated violations of unnecessary roughness rules.”pic.twitter.com/zaYK5DJ0o2
— Sports 1140 KHTK (@Sports1140KHTK) September 30, 2019
SB Nation researched that Burfict racked up over $4.5 million in career fines and forfeited pay in his seven years with the Bengals, even before that hit and eventual suspension.
Yet, for some reason, the league seems to feel he deserves another chance.
Let’s hope each individual team disagrees and refuses to sign him.
I mean, I’m not in favor of collusion. But in this case… I’m in favor of collusion.
Maybe that wouldn’t need to happen. Burfict will be 30 years old in September, and his play started to dip prior to his signing in Oakland anyway. Maybe the entire NFL can just unanimously agree that the risk of bringing him on board isn’t worth the return.
What is the NFL doing here? Just because Burfict applies for reinstatement, do they have to agree to it? The guy has a rap sheet longer than the screenplay for “The Irishman.”
He’s a menace. A timebomb ticking away until his next headshot or knee-dive. Why does he need to be invited back into the league?
Why does the players association have to keep him in the union? Every time a fellow player steps across the line of scrimmage from him, they are putting themselves at risk to be on the receiving end of dangerous illegal activity.
If I was an executive in either organization — the league office or the NFLPA — I’d voice my concerns about exposure to legal action from another potential victim of Burfict’s nefarious hits. After all, his track record is long enough, and egregious enough, that both sides should understand he’s got the potential to injure on purpose.
The league has taken Burfict off the field on many occasions. Yet they keep putting him right back on it.
NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports that Burfict has been working out at Arizona State. That’s his alma mater. Burfict’s former Cincinnati head coach, Marvin Lewis, now coaches there.
And Pelissero tweeted this exchange with Peter Schaffer, Burfict’s agent.
From Vontaze Burfict’s agent, Peter Schaffer, who told me Burfict has been working out at his alma mater, Arizona State (where Burfict has an advocate in former #Bengals coach Marvin Lewis). pic.twitter.com/4wa3wCmajQ
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 24, 2020
Ha! That’s a good one, Pete. Tell me another.
Burfict didn’t illegally hit Antonio Brown, or DeMarco Murray, or Maxx Williams, or dive at Ben Roethlisberger’s knees, or stomp on LeGarrette Blount, or give groin shots to Ryan Taylor, or twist Cam Newton’s ankles (just to name a few incidents) because he didn’t understand the NFL code of conduct.
Or because he was ignoring positive mentoring from Lewis.
He did those things because he is an inherently dirty, dangerous and reckless player.
By the way, Burfict is an inside linebacker. That’s a position where he is subject to many fines, flags and potential suspension for illegal hits that are accidents even if he actually tries to control his game.
Although I doubt he will.
If Burfict comes back with the Raiders, Bengals or anyone else next year, I bet he winds up suspended again.
I just pray whoever he decides to take out will be able to walk again.
The NFL and NFLPA should as well.