After a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit Sunday on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle that was the latest in a series of “repeated violations of unnecessary roughness rules,” the NFL suspended Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict for the rest of the 2019 season, including the postseason.
“There were no mitigating circumstances on this play,” Jon Runyan, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, wrote in a statement. “Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant and should have been avoided. For your actions, you were warned by me and each of the jointly-appointed appeal officers that future violations would result in escalated accountability measures.