Cincinnati Bengals fans know this one all too well — Vontaze Burfict is in hot water with the NFL for his actions on the field.
This time Burfict, who got cut during the coaching staff transition this spring and quickly joined former Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther on the Oakland Raiders, laid a helmet-first hit on a defenseless receiver in Week 4.
Burfict was ejected from that game, and it didn’t take long for the league to come in with a ruling — he’s suspended for the rest of the season.
The embattled linebacker will appeal and perhaps see some of the punishment shaved. This is an unprecedented suspension after all, but Burfict is an unprecedented player who continually ignores the warnings of escalating punishment while putting both himself and other players in danger.
As of last December — the last time we updated the running tally of Burfict’s fines and money lost — he had sacrificed more than $4 million in earnings in fines for his play. Thanks to his actions and injury, he never appeared in more than 11 games in a season over the last five years of his tenure with the Bengals.
Losing 12 games of pay to close out his season with the Raiders would bump the number, to say the least.
