Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict was ejected from Sunday’s loss to the Tennessee Titans following a rather unfortunate sequence. Two plays after getting flagged for a late hit on DeMarco Murray, Burfict was ejected for making contact with an official.
At least some members of Burfict’s team feel that the calls were more about his reputation than anything else.
“I think so,” receiver A.J. Green said, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I think he’s getting targeted a lot. On some of those plays I don’t think anybody else would make it. They wouldn’t get that call. I think he just has a target on his back. That’s the way he is. He’s an emotional guy. That’s the guy we want. I wouldn’t trade him for anybody in the world.”
Defensive lineman Chris Smith had a similar opinion of Burfict’s hit on Murray.
“My opinion, yeah it,” Smith said, per Hobson. “I think they say before the game, ‘Watch 5, 5,’” Smith added, per Hobson. “The (unnecessary roughness penalty) they called on him, he literally threw his hands up. He just bumped the guy … What else are you supposed to do? … If that’s what they’re going to call that’s what they’re going to call, but I didn’t really think that was fair.”
You can determine for yourself whether the hit on Murray or the contact with the referee justified the penalties/ejection.
Objectively, there is a point to make. The hit on Murray was not egregious at all. The contact with the official is harder to defend. It’s certainly possible that the referee was looking to call a penalty on Burfict. But contacting an official in any way is perhaps the biggest no-no in football, or any sport. It consistently gets players ejected from games and suspended from future ones.
In the end, Burfict didn’t do anything more than swat the referee’s arm away. But by that point, it was an action he simply didn’t need to take. The post-play shoving match had ended and there was no heat of the moment. Burfict could have just as easily walked around the official’s arm.
But even if you disagree with all of that and think that Burfict is being targeted, it’s not exactly unfair. Think of it this way. If a teenage kid — especially one with several tickets to his/her name — is pulled over going 10 miles over the speed limit, it’s almost a guaranteed ticket. An adult with a clean driving record has a much better chance of getting away with just a warning.
Burfict has done absoutely nothing to earn any benefit of the doubt. If he’s a player that referees target, it’s because, in his sixth NFL season, he’s given referees around the league ample reasons to watch him closer than essentially anyone else in the league.
If anyone should know first hand what this is about, it’s Green. In Week 9, Green was ejected when he rather visciouly attacked Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive back Jalen Ramsey. He was ejected but not suspended. Certainly, Green’s reputation — a good one — likely helped his cause.
The same basic idea applies to Burfict.
In Burfict’s case, the “target on his back” will be awfully hard to change. Until Burfict can make it through at least one whole season without at least one of these stupid incidents, he’s going to be targeted. While targeting someone may have an unfair connotation behind it, it’s completely justified in this case