Barber: Raiders have it wrong on Vontaze Burfict's suspension

Vontaze Burfict is gone (at least for a while), but he’s not forgotten.

The Raiders’ middle linebacker remained a topic of conversation this week in Alameda, as the team returned from its bye and prepared for Sunday’s game at Green Bay. More to the point, the NFL’s treatment of Burfict was a topic of conversation. The league suspended him for the remainder of the 2019 season after his helmet-to-helmet hit on Colts tight end Jack Doyle in Week 4. And on Oct. 8, appeals officer Derrick Brooks - the former Buccaneers linebacker jointly appointed to his new role by the NFL and the Players’ Association - upheld the banishment.

Raiders head coach Jon Gruden was miffed by the decision when I was in Alameda on Wednesday. “Losing Burfict is big. I’m still not happy about it,” Gruden said. “I’m just not happy about it. We believe in players’ safety, I’ll say that. We coach it, we believe in it and we really stress it. But 12 games, I’m not happy about that.”

Gruden implied what other Raiders had already stated - that this was a gross overreach by the NFL. Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, who also coached Burfict in Cincinnati, was even more forceful on the subject Thursday.

I wasn’t in Alameda that day, but I heard audio of Guenther’s reply, and here’s what he said: “For us to sign him and the history I have with this guy, with us knowing that the next infraction that he was going to get was going to end his season and maybe his career, I think it was a witch hunt from the beginning, quite honestly. Somebody in the league didn’t want him playing football and they got what they wanted. We are going to keep a close eye, the Raiders are going to keep a close eye, to make sure everybody is being held to the same standard as Vontaze was.”

Guenther apparently was not cc’d on the memo stating that any use of the term “witch hunt” is now considered hilarious and hurtful to your argument. At least he didn’t toss “quid pro quo” out there.

Guenther did elaborate on a valid point - that the NFL should have informed the Raiders that Burfict was on his last-last chance.

Generally, though, the Raiders are missing the point. Burfict wasn’t suspended for hitting Jack Doyle in the head. He was suspended for hitting Doyle and Green Bay’s Ryan Taylor and the Packers’ James Jones and the Jets’ Stephen Hill and Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers’ Antonio Brown and Kansas City’s Anthony Sherman, and for pulling down Buffalo’s Fred Jackson by the facemask, and for twisting the ankles of Carolina’s Cam Newton and Greg Olson, and for stomping on the legs of New England’s LaGarrette Blount, and undoubtedly for other hostile acts I have forgotten.

Considered in that context, the Raiders should have assumed that Burfict’s next infraction would meet with swift and harsh punishment. He is the definition of a serial offender.

I found it telling to see the reaction to Burfict’s suspension from retired NFL players. Often they will close ranks around an embattled athlete. But former safety Ed Reed told an annoying TMZ stalker that he believes Burfict “needs to be evaluated.”

Like, mental evaluation, the cameraman asked? “Yeah, man,” Reed said.

“He gonna mess around and seriously hurt someone,” Shannon Sharpe said on Fox Sports’ “Undisputed,” arguing in favor of the ban. “Then what? … I believe he goes out there with an intent to hurt someone.”

They, and others, are speaking out because this isn’t Player vs. Team or Player vs. League. It’s Player vs. Other Players. There are victims of Burfict’s transgressions, and they are athletes, too.

Gruden says the Raiders believe in player safety, but I guarantee you it’s not his first priority. He’s a football coach at heart. He doesn’t talk about world events and politics like Steve Kerr. And he doesn’t have patience with his own players when they’re hurt. You can bet Gruden isn’t losing any sleep over Jack Doyle.

It is easy to see Burfict’s suspension as one more example of NFL officiating gone off the rails. Players, mostly defenders, are penalized every week for hits that look totally legitimate, even unavoidable. The Raiders very nearly fell victim to overprotection in London when a fourth-quarter interception by Daryl Worley was negated by a dubious roughing-the-passer penalty on Maurice Hurst.

This also misses the point. The NFL does have a problem with legislating its violence right now. It’s too hard for a tackler to discern legal from illegal, especially in the heat of battle. Until the NFL finds some clarity in the way it writes and enforces player-safety rules, there will be injustices.

But Vontaze Burfict’s hits don’t fall into the gray area. They are outlined in black and white. Take the Doyle hit. It wasn’t a case of a receiver ducking his head at the last minute, or of a defender making contact with his shoulder first, then sliding to the head. Doyle was down on one knee after catching a pass over the middle. Burfict gathered himself and led with his helmet, aimed right at Doyle’s. It was a textbook violation.

This is what Burfict has done again and again throughout his career, despite multiple warning shots. The NFL had dinged him with a pair of previous ?three-game suspensions for dangerous hits (this does not include a four-game suspension for positive PED tests), and had fined him a total of at least $480,000. None of it served to dissuade him or change his style.

Away from the field, he’s a different person. Burfict is a heady linebacker renowned for helping teammates learn the defensive playbook. He can also be an intelligent and down-to-earth source for reporters.

I talked to Burfict briefly three weeks ago, prior to the Colts game, during a quiet moment in the Raiders’ locker room when most of the media were listening to Guenther and offensive coordinator Greg Olson outside. I played back the audio file Thursday. I was asking Burfict about hurting his shoulder against the Vikings, an injury he put aside to return to the game.

“I play every down like it’s your last,” Burfict told me.

I don’t mean to play grammar police, but what a twist of irony. Burfict meant to say he plays every down like it’s his last. But the evidence has become irrefutable. He really plays as if it’s yours. And guys like that have no place on an NFL field.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.