We're exactly one week away from watching Arizona State kick off the 2025-26 college football season against Northern Arizona at Mountain America Stadium. We're so close, folks.
Yesterday we explored the impact of running back D.J. Foster and his lasting legacy on the program to this day. Now, we'll take a bit of a turn and explore the complicated career of linebacker Vontaze Burfict.
The six-foot-two Burfict was a five-star recruit out of Centennial High School in California and originally committed to USC before switching to Arizona State on National Signing Day 2009. Though, his path was rocky from the beginning as he struggled to meet academic admissions standards in order to be eligible for the 2009 college football season.
He was an instant impact on then-head coach Dennis Erickson's team, logging 69 tackles and two sacks to earn freshman All-American and Pac-10 defensive freshman of the year honors.
The debut of Vontaze Burfict for @ASUFootball as a true freshman š³ š± š pic.twitter.com/9YC5cmOBYG
ā The cfb lliason (@realfbllliason) May 31, 2025
Vontaze Burfict's disciplinary issues made it hard to love his aggressive style of play
Burfict was benched during his sophomore season due to accruing an excessive amount of personal foul penalties. He still ended up leading the team in tackles (90) and forced two fumbles. After a mediocre junior season he decided to forego his senior year and enter the NFL Draft. Burfict totaled 22 personal foul penalties in 37 games played for ASU.
He went undrafted despite being one of the top linebacker prospects but signed with the Cincinnati Bengals as a rookie free agent. He spent seven seasons in that organization from 2012-18 and was a key component of the defense. His disciplinary issues followed him, however, racking up several fines and suspensions for hits on defenseless receivers and dangerous play. The most notable of which was a hit to the head on Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown in a playoff game which knocked the latter unconscious.
Iām no doctor, but maybe Antonio Brown never recovered from this disgusting hit by Vontaze Burfict pic.twitter.com/7FKGRs9AiD
ā Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) January 2, 2022
In 2019, Burfict signed a one-year deal with the Oakland Raiders but only played 4 games before he was handed a 12-game suspension for an illegal hit made in Week 4. It was the longest suspension for on-field misconduct in NFL history and effectively ended his career. Burfict finished with 622 combined tackles, 8.5 sacks and 10 turnovers across eight seasons.
He's now a defensive analyst at UNLV and will make his debut with the Rebels this year.
Burfict was a tough guy to play against, sometimes too tough for the game of football. His disciplinary issues made it hard for ASU fans to proudly claim him as an alum but that doesn't change the fact that he wore the Maroon and Gold. The beauty of the game is in the eye of the beholder and we'll just leave it at that.