The NFL said Thursday that Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict’s appeal has been upheld after it was heard by Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks and he’ll miss the first three games of the upcoming season.
The league also confirmed that Burfict met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York Thursday, but it was unrelated to the three-game suspension Goodell gave him after this season for what was ruled as repeated violations of the player safety guidelines. Brooks' ruling had apparently had been handed down before Thursday.
Although Burfict was hit with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness call for hitting a defenseless player on the last play of last month’s Wild Card Game against the Steelers on a play Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown received a concussion, Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther and several players believed Burfict did the best he could to avoid drilling Brown while trying to make a play on a bang-bang pass.