Raiders DC: Burfict's suspension 'a witch hunt'

Oakland Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther slammed the NFL on Thursday for upholding linebacker Vontaze Burfict's season-long suspension.

"I think it was a witch hunt from the beginning, quite honestly," Guenther said, according to ESPN's Paul Gutierrez. "Somebody in the league didn't want him playing football and they got what they wanted."

Guenther added that Oakland was unaware that Burfict, who's previously been banned three times for dangerous hits and leads the NFL with 23 personal fouls since 2012, was one infraction away from being suspended.

"Does it make any sense to sign a guy that, after one infraction, he's going to get thrown out of the league for a year? No, it doesn't," Guenther said. "So, I think it's very unfair. It's unfair to our team. It's unfair to Vontaze."

Burfict was ejected from the Raiders' Week 4 contest against the Indianapolis Colts for a head-to-head hit on tight end Jack Doyle. The veteran linebacker appealed his unprecedented ban, but it was upheld by an independent arbitrator.

The NFL said in its initial announcement of the ban that Burfict had been warned that "future violations would result in escalated accountability measures." However, Guenther believes the league wasn't clear enough about the potential career-ending ramifications of another incident.

"How would you deal with it if you basically got your career taken away like that?" Guenther said. "And not really know that that's what's going to happen. He may not play football again. And that's a tough thing. ... All of a sudden, it's done and, what team, now that they know the next infraction you're going to be done for the year, that's a tough pill to swallow, without knowing that was going to be the consequence. To me, that's not right."

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