As someone who's been a fan of the National Football League for 45 years, I revel in the entertainment aspect of the sport. But as we witnessed on Monday evening, the job as an NFL player can literally be a matter of life and death.
Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin had his heartbeat restored on the field after suffering cardiac arrest during the team's game Monday night against the Bengals, and he is currently in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital, the Bills said in a statement early Tuesday morning.
The chilling scene midway through the opening quarter led the league to postpone the game about 90 minutes after kickoff.
CPR was administered to Hamlin, 24, on the field for multiple minutes after he collapsed following his tackle of Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin received oxygen, according to the ESPN broadcast, as he was placed in the ambulance and taken off the field some 16 minutes after he collapsed. He then was driven to the nearby University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
According to the Bills, he is currently sedated and listed in critical condition. The University of Cincinnati Medical Center did not anticipate making any statement early Tuesday morning.
I recall a game 25 years ago last month where the New York Jets were playing the Detroit Lions at the old Pontiac Silverdome. It was the regular season finale with both teams needing a victory to reach the postseason. On top of that, Lions star RB Barry Sanders needed to rush for 131 yards to become only the third player in NFL history to reach the 2,000-yard milestone in a season. Trailing 13-10 early in the 4th quarter, Jets RB Adrian Murrell ran up the middle for a 2-yard gain when he was tackled by Lions LB Reggie Brown. As Brown dove to make the tackle, the crown of his helmet rammed into the backside of a falling Jets lineman, resulting in Brown feeling complete paralysis and not being able to breathe. The 75,000+ fans packed into the stadium were eerily quiet as medical personnel tended to Brown for nearly 15 minutes, including administering CPR. Players on both sides knelt in prayer as well as openly wept before Brown was ultimately revived and taken to a hospital. But unlike Monday evening's game, play resumed in that '97 contest. To this day I have no idea how the players were able to get back into game focus, but somehow they did. With about two minutes remaining, Sanders eclipsed 2,000 yards for the season and the Lions prevailed by that 13-10 score.
While I wholeheartedly agreed with the decision to postpone Monday's game, why did they resume play in that Jets-Lions contest 25 years ago but not this week? Perhaps that can be a conversation for another day, but one theory which immediately leaps to mind is the NFL's reputation for having been so callous over player health and safety for so many years. To insist that play should resume Monday evening would have been unthinkable in light of the league giving assurances they're now a lot more judicious over the well being of their athletes.
Another feature of this era, thanks to a plethora of internet platforms, is the deluge of theories and "hot takes" in the immediate aftermath of a high profile incident.
This is a tragic and all too familiar sight right now: Athletes dropping suddenly.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 3, 2023
I don’t even want to talk about any of this tonight. @HamlinIsland should be the only focus. But to see people ALREADY trying to spin this, and to announce what questions are and are not to okay to ask, is sickening. ENOUGH.
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 3, 2023
I'm getting to the point that the folks who insinuate healthy people suddenly dying must be tied to having received the COVID vaccine are on par with gun grabbers who insist a spree killer is a rightwing gun nut propped up by the NRA. Both groups of demagogues make outlandish claims before even a shred of information is released about a given incident, but will issue no mea culpas when ultimately proven wrong.
As much as some of us like to decry that the world is going to hell, we can still be uplifted in the face of a tragedy. While in college at Pitt, Hamlin started a GoFundMe for a toy drive in support of his small Pennsylvania community. As I write this, the fundraiser (with a modest goal of $2,500) has exceeded $4 million!
This fundraiser was initially established to support a toy drive for Damar’s community, sponsored by the Chasing M’s Foundation.
However, it has received renewed support in light of Damar’s current battle, and we can’t thank all of you enough. Your generosity and compassion mean the world to us.
If you would like to show your support and contribute to Damar’s community initiatives and his current fight, this is the place to do so. This is the only current fund being used by the Hamlin Family.
Again, thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and generous support.
I'll admit that after my Vikings club got slaughtered on Sunday, I was in a pretty foul mood. But after Monday evening's harrowing incident, I'm embarrassed how much I let a seemingly trivial thing affect my outlook.
My prayers for young Damar Hamlin and his loved ones will continue.
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