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Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict is quite the talking point these days.
His season-ending suspension for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle on Sunday has inspired rhetoric from all corners of the goober gallery.
Says ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, “I’m not sure if it would be overstating it to say, ‘That should be the last snap he is ever allowed on a professional football field.'”
That’s a mighty harsh judgment. Keep in mind, however, that Greenberg bills himself, “The world’s foremost authority on all matters.”
Truth: Howard Cosell is loosing a rant in the great beyond as we speak.
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, a thoughtful sort, who doesn’t believe Burfict should be suspended for the hit.
Michael Wilbon believes Burfict has “played like a thug for a long time.”
And then there is Bill Romanowski, former 49ers and Raiders linebacker who, it appears, is endeavoring to drag football back into the untamed, loosely regulated dark ages, where the flying wedge, head slap and crackback block were the price you paid to be a manly man, and you always returned to the field after getting your bell rung because whenever the doctor asked how many fingers he was holding up, the answer was always “2.”
So of course Romanowski’s reaction to Burfict’s suspension, which Burfict is appealing, is: “Bullfeathers.”
“You’re in the heat of battle,” Romo told TMZ Sports. “Your mindset is kill or be killed.”
Kill or be killed? Sounds like Romanowski formed his worldview by watching cheesy military action thrillers in which secret forces kick the snot and slobber out of third-world insurgents.
“You’re in a war,” Romanowski reiterated. “You’re supposed to be able to be violent sometimes. Do I think (Burfict) should be fined? Yes. Do I think he should be kicked out of the league? No. I think it is absolutely dead wrong,” said the man who was onced fined $7,500 by the NFL for spitting in the face of an opponent.
“This guy has handled himself like a pro,” Romanowski said of Burfict, “and yes, he is a violent (compound expletive), and I love the way he plays football.”
