Vontaze Burfict reportedly had already been fined $50,000 for his vicious, dirty hit on Baltimore Ravens tight end Maxx Williams in Week 17, well before his infamous blow on Antonio Brown during the wild card round on Saturday.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio shined the light on this interesting bit of news, noting both Burfict and the Cincinnati Bengals surely knew about the pricey fine and simply kept the matter private.
Wonder why.
For those uninitiated when it comes to the hit in question on Williams, we have you covered (watch here).
Less than a week later after decleating a defenseless player who didn’t even have the ball coming his way, Burfict was once again completely out of control. He lowered his shoulder into the head of the Pittsburgh Steelers receiver, hitting him so hard he’s still on the NFL’s concussion protocol as of Monday.
Therefore it’s not surprising at all looking back at both incidents to find out the NFL suspended Burfict for the first three games of the 2016 NFL season.
It’s a fair punishment, considering he could have seriously injured three different players. Likely, many would advocate for an even stiffer penalty for the notoriously dirty player, whose transgressions have been a big problem going back to his college days at Arizona State University.
Remember, he was highly rated by many NFL scouts before multiple issues, both on the field in his college career and during the pre-draft process, turned him into an undrafted free agent.
It is clear now that the league was already ready to pounce on any more lapses in judgement by Burfict, well before he ever hit Brown. Then he did, and it was an easy call to make.