The NFL reinstated veteran linebacker Vontaze Burfict on Monday following his season-long suspension stemming from a Week 4 helmet-to-helmet hit delivered on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle. The 29-year-old Burfict, who last played with the Oakland Raiders, is “committed to returning” to the league following his latest suspension, per the NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.
Vontaze Burfict was quietly reinstated from his suspension last month. The veteran linebacker has been working out — and working in a variety of ways to clean up his play — in hopes of returning to the NFL for 2020 and beyond. @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/1kc80D1pea
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 24, 2020
The one-time Pro Bowl linebacker spent the first seven seasons of his NFL tenure with the Cincinnati Bengals after the AFC North franchise signed the undrafted Burfict out of Arizona State in 2012. Burfict was released by Cincinnati in March of last year and later signed with the Raiders to a one-year deal before missing out on 75 percent of the 2019 season following the critical suspended levied by the NFL.
Prior to his 2019 shortened, Burfict was suspended on three different occasions totaling 10 regular-season missed games. Altogether including 2019, the controversial, hard-hitting Burfict has missed 22 games.
According to Pelissero, Burfict will work out this month at his alma mater as he attempts an NFL comeback, seeking another team to sign the linebacker with a poor reputation and dangerous approach towards tackling in the open field.
Burfict lost over $1 million in potential on-field earnings in 2019 due to the 12-game suspension by the league.
In the fall, following the NFL's decision to suspend Burfict for the remainder of the season, his agent, Lamont Smith, vehemently rejected the punishment.
“Hmmmm . . . I wonder how many other players they’ve done that for in the last two or three years,” Smith told NFL.com.
“It’s different when someone is trying to make a football play, not a deliberate act where someone is trying to hurt an opponent,” Smith said. “Haynesworth was trying to hurt someone and he got five games.”
Burfict will go another offseason looking for a new team following last spring's release by the Bengals.
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