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The Oakland Raiders are in the midst of a six-game road trip, which includes headlining a London, England game against the Chicago Bears next Sunday. The Jon Gruden–coached franchise will have to compete against the Bears without linebacker Vontaze Burfict, who was tagged with a season-ending suspension from the NFL.
The 29-year-old Burfict, a free agent last offseason who inked a one-year, $5 million deal with the Bay Area franchise in the spring, has a checkered past featuring multiple unlawful hits deemed dangerous and violating the league's safety measures. On Monday, the NFL announced Burfict's late-hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle went too far, justifying the suspension.
Due to Burfict's suspension, the linebacker will have to leave his teammates and coaching staff in London and return home, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports.
Agent Lamont Smith tells me that #Raiders LB Vontaze Burfict is coming home. He was in London with his team, then learned of his pending season-long suspension that he’s appealing.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 30, 2019
Rapoport also reports Burfict is appealing the NFL's suspension. Despite the appeal, though, the former Cincinnati Bengal has to sit out team activities, like the trans-Atlantic matchup inviting European NFL fans to watch American football at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Burfict was a fixture of the Bengals' defense for seven seasons after going undrafted in 2012. In that time, however, the Arizona State product became known as one of the “dirtiest” players in the game, inflicting an unnecessary amount of damage while tackling players, or like in the case for the Colts' Doyle, making a late hit when the play was whistled dead.
Burfict previously served a three-game suspension at the start of the 2016 NFL season and the next year saw a five-game tag, an ante up for his continued misbehavior, leading to Monday's justice.
