GRUDEN GAMBLED ON LINEBACKER AND LOST
Raiders’ Burfict banned for season after dangerous hit
Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden took two big chances in the off-season. It was he, and not general manager Mike Mayock, who reportedly chose to add two players with unmistakable character issues — one mostly off the field, the other mostly on.
Namely, wide receiver Antonio Brown (off ) and linebacker Vontaze Burfict (on).
As you know, Brown never even made it onto the field for a regular-season game with Oakland as the club cut him two days before the Raiders’ first game for a long list of egregious and unacceptable off-field behaviours.
In other words, Brown merely kept on doing what he had been doing for a long time. No one should have been surprised, least of all Gruden.
Now there’s Burfict. On Monday the NFL announced the linebacker had been suspended for the remainder of the season for his appallingly over-the-line late hit Sunday on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle.
Burfict took at least two bursting strides toward an already down and defenceless Doyle before quite clearly and purposefully leaping and launching his helmet straight at Doyle’s head.
Burfict was properly penalized for a personal foul, then ejected. As he ran off the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, helmet in hand, Burfict smiled brightly — as if mighty proud of the reason for his ejection.
Gruden seemed perturbed that “nobody in this stadium … in this zip code made the call” to eject Burfict, even though Gruden said he agreed with the penalty. The decision to eject Burfict was made by the league’s central replay command centre in New York, Gruden said.
Well, so what. New York made Monday’s decision, too.
Burfict is hardly a stranger to NFL suspensions.
In 2016, he was banished for four games for an even worse head smash on none other than Brown, then a Pittsburgh Steelers receiver, when Burfict was a Cincinnati Bengal. A year later, Burfict was suspended four games for a hit on Anthony Sherman. A year after that he sat out for four games for a PED suspension.
All unpaid suspensions, too. Monday’s move equates to a 12-game suspension without pay, bringing his career suspension total to 22 games for a combined loss of pay of US$4.6 million — and fines totalling $411,064, per ESPN.
Again, as with Brown, Burfict merely kept on doing what he had been doing for a long time. No one should have been surprised, least of all Gruden.
Extreme human behaviour trends are difficult to break. Gruden knows this. He gambled and lost on Brown and Burfict and he hurt his team more than he helped it in the process.
The veteran coach should apologize to his players.
WIN-LOSS STATISTICS
It’s now Week 5, when a bunch of teams typically have .500 records at 2-2.
Eight teams in the AFC do, including all four in the South division. Make it five in the NFC.
This year’s Week 5 standings anomaly finds only three teams in the AFC with winning records: New England (4-0), Kansas City (4-0) and Buffalo (3-1).
CONCUSSION PROTOCOL
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen remains in concussion protocol after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit in Sunday’s loss to New England.
On Monday, Bills head coach Sean Mcdermott said the team is starting the week under the assumption backup quarterback Matt Barkley will start next Sunday’s game at Tennessee.
“Until we know more, that’s what we have to do — and that’s make sure Matt is ready to go,” Mcdermott said.
Mcdermott quite pointedly expressed his disappointment following the game Sunday that Patriots defensive back Jonathan Jones did not get ejected for the tackle.
He refused to address the incident Monday, saying he and the team have moved on.
Perhaps that decision came about after he dissected reviews of the play, in which it appears Jones was in the process of turning his own head sideways and did not leap toward nor lower his head into Allen.
Unsurprisingly, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Monday he agreed with the decision not to eject Jones based on the criteria that wasn’t met, as explained to a pool reporter after the game by the NFL senior vice-president of officiating Al Riveron.