Vontaze Burfict gets yet another big fine from the NFL

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 8, 2018, 5:33 PM EST
AP

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The NFL has fined Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict.

This time the fine was $53,482 for lowering his helmet and drilling Broncos fullback Andy Janovich. The hit was loud and violent.

Burfict has a long, long history of fines and suspensions for various personal fouls. He was suspended for the first three games of the 2016 season and the first three games of the 2017 season for illegal hits, and he was suspended for the first four games of this season for a PED violation.

Once he got on the field this season, Burfict was fined a whopping $112,000 for illegal hits against the Steelers. Now he has yet another significant fine. Eventually the NFL may need to suspend him again, as the only way to keep Burfict from dirty play seems to be keeping him off the field entirely.

Permalink 54 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

54 responses to “Vontaze Burfict gets yet another big fine from the NFL”

  4. there is no deterring this guy .. he doesn’t _want_ to change .. ever tried to get someone to stop smoking when they _DONT_WANT_ to quit smoking?

  5. That was good football despite what the NFL lawyer and the media stooges say. I guess nobody else heard the
    saying “I knew the risk when i put on the uniform”?

  7. I actually think he hits so hard because he’s so late on plays. He’s never the first defender to the ball so he’s cleaning up after the first hit which slows the offensive player down. He’s angry he didn’t get their first.

  8. i’m not seeing any helmet to helmet contact here. Burfict manages to both lean his helmet away from the runner’s (who is leaning at about 7o degrees or less already) and first impact is shoulder to sternum, lofting the runner up & backwards on impact with some braced/coiled arm extension added.

    At the exact first moment of impact, Burfict’s helmet was both a) slanting away from and b) already past the runner’s helmet & there’s not ‘helmet to helmet’ contact that I can see. If you expand the gif you can apparently achieve further slomo fx by clicking on it intermittently …

  9. Eventually the NFL may need to suspend him again, as the only way to keep Burfict from dirty play seems to be keeping him off the field entirely.

    How many times have we heard this. They need to send a CLEAR message to this clown. Fines aren’t doing it. Suspensions aren’t doing it. They need to start ejecting him from games and give him a LONG suspension. I get the feeling they are only going to do something when he permanently maims someone.

  14. Maybe, just maybe after an opponent is paralyzed.
    Hope the comment sent a shiver down your spine.
    NFL Ain’t gonna stop him. It’s joke. Someones health isn’t a joke.
    Throw him out!

  15. he is a scumbag, I don’t think all of his penalties are deserved, but he has earned a higher level of scrutiny. His elbow to the head of Antonio Brown was criminal.

  16. What is wrong with the NFL why is this guy still playing,he gonna hut somebody really bad,step up Rodger and the NFL committee,better than that why is Marv so scared of this guy

  17. Absolutely ridiculous!

    I guess he will have to break someones neck before the league wakes up.

    smh

  21. Steelers players have been leveling dirty hits and cheap shots for decades, but let’s zero in on Burfict…

  23. When marvin gets fored and tez switches team it will be funny to see everyone suddenly love the guy.

  24. I watched the play in real time and watched the replays. To me it was straight a up football play. Burfict did what linebackers are supposed to do. Act like lions and treat ball carriers as if they are raw meat. He wasn’t tying to injure or spear, it was a hard-nosed defensive stop. His reputation got him that fine because if it were anyone else the only story would have been the great play and vicious hit.

  29. deuce22222 says:

    These are the kinds of hits that’ll be legal in the XFL. Right?
    ==================================================

    I hope so. They might run off millennial fans, though.

  30. In other news, Jerry Hughes got fined the exact same amount for yelling at a referee. A repeat offender who is not deterred by fines and suspensions continuing to do his thing got fined the same amount as a guy who got into a screaming match with a ref. Get it together NFL and dump burfict before he paralyzes someone.

  31. I thought Burfict must have retired since he hadn’t been fined lately. That’s the only way we ever hear about him.

  33. Much like the Bungles refuse to fire Marvin Lewis, the NFL refuses to ban Burfict from the game. Must be something in the water in Cincy…

  35. You’ve got to be kidding me… I’m a huge Broncos fan and I even turned to my wife and said that was one of the best hits of the year. The hit was “loud and violent” but God help us if there can’t be a loud and violent hit in Football.

  40. He needs to figure out that with his reputation it has gotten to the point where probably 80% of the things he gets flagged and fined for would just be hard nosed football for any other player. He has a target on him every time he comes in contact with anybody on the field.

  42. Player safety should be one issue the owners and the Players Association can agree on. If the players pay money to a union to look out for their best interest, somebody is asleep at the wheel. I don’t think the player’s union is doing a good job of protecting their own. Just because it’s one of them, doesn’t make it OK. The players association should tell all their players to stay off the field until this one safety hazard is removed. The players didn’t want to risk injury playing on that unsafe surface in Mexico City, so they moved the game. Are they going to wait until one of the players gets paralyzed to remove Burfict from the playing field? I’d like to see the players have a different option than the current union. This union is definitely not a top notch organization. The players are getting screwed every time you turn around. I don’t understand the media’s hands off policy toward the NFLPA. What or who are they trying to protect? It’s definitely not the players.

  44. It was a very hard hit, so what?
    That’s what line backers are supposed to do.
    Is that it appeared to be helmet to helmet?
    It looked like he was trying to hit the RB with his shoulder.
    A line backer is allowed to hit the opposing runner in the head with his shoulder.
    A LB isn’t allowed to use his own head because he might get hurt (like Ryan Shazier).
    How is this a dirty play?
    Burfict could have hurt himself, thats the only penalty.

  45. they should trade him to the Stealers. That is the only way he would avoid susensions and fines.
    It is certain that as long as they keep Lewis they won’t get rid of him.

  47. thisistheendifyouletit says:
    December 8, 2018 at 5:53 pm
    I actually think he hits so hard because he’s so late on plays. He’s never the first defender to the ball so he’s cleaning up after the first hit which slows the offensive player down. He’s angry he didn’t get their first.
    ___________________________________________________________________________________________

    How the hell do you know if this is the case? Clearly you don’t pay attention to the Bengals games the past 5 years. Your opinion is based on pure garbage.

  48. Anyone else makes that hit, especially a Steeler, they don’t get fined but since it’s Burfict, he gets fined. His shoulder was made the first contact.

  53. I’m sorry, but if you honestly watch that play and think Burfict should be fined/suspended/banned for it, I don’t want any part of what you think is “football”. “Loud and violent”, yeah, that’s sort of the point.

    Every week, there are worse hits that go unflagged and in-fined. Burfict has earned his reputation for being dirty, but that play wasn’t. I can understand the league’s focus on Burfict, but what I can’t understand are football writers or “fans” (especially Steelers fans) advocating for Burfict to be banned because of hits like this.

  54. The hits that Burfict has doled out over his career have taken the most toll on….Burfict himself. He is always hurt and now seems a step slow.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.