Is Vontaze Burfict just a misunderstood person who just so happens to have a hefty history of fines and suspensions? Derek Carr seems to think so.
Burfict was suspended for the remainder of the 2019 NFL season after the Oakland Raiders linebacker laid an unnecessary helmet-to-helmet hit to Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle. Burfict was ejected from Oakland’s Week 4 matchup, before being hit (no pun intended) with the suspension.
And while some like New England Patriots tight end Ben Watson agree with the ruling, others like Carr believe Burfict is just “one of the most misunderstood people in the NFL.”
“I don’t think he was trying to hurt that man; the man was going down,” the Raiders quarterback said of Burfict’s helmet-to-helmet hit, per ESPN. “You see it all the time — there’s flags flying everywhere.
“We see other people choking people out, and they’re going to play this Sunday. We see other people hitting people in the helmet, and they’re going to play this Sunday. And Vontaze Burfict won’t play the rest of the year? I think that’s a little excessive, if you ask me,” Carr added. “I don’t think it’s fair, if we really got to know the guy. If the people making the decision really knew the guy that we know, inside our building … he’s a great person, his heart is broken because he’s not playing football. The guy just wants to play football. We don’t get a lot of time to play this game in our lives.”
Carr, of course, is referring to Baltimore Ravens’ Marlon Humphrey allegedly choking Cleveland Browns’ Odell Beckham Jr., and (probably) talking about Patriots’ Jonathan Jones’ hit on Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen that knocked him out of the game last Sunday.
Now, Burfict probably is heartbroken he won’t be playing the game he loves for the rest of the season. But is a guy who’s missed 10 games over the last three seasons due to suspensions and fined 11 times for his actions toward players really just “misunderstood”?
Probably not.
