The NFL doesn’t pay the players, the teams do. And the teams are not going to steal a paycheck from the players who watched a dude suffer cardiac arrest on the field in the middle of the game. I’m willing to believe that the NFL is a pack of soulless ghouls, but Terry Pegula isn’t going to stop payment on Damar’s check this week, ainec imo.
It probably wouldn’t be stealing by the letter if they choose to do that. It’d be horrible PR but since when do owners give a shit about that? The NFL and the teams in it have rode out numerous scandals throughout their existence and are still the largest professional sports league in the Americas.
I admire your optimism, but let’s not be surprised if the players don’t get paid should the NFL opt to cancel the game.
The point is that the NFL is trying to use a technicality to avoid responsibility. They likely didn’t affirmatively say 5 minutes because they knew they didn’t have to as the default rules are five minutes to restart. So while technically the statement isn’t a lie, it’s meaningless.
Imagine if this happened while replacement refs were still a thing.
I’d guess it’s more likely they might play this weekend as normal, then have only the Bills/Bengals game the following weekend (pushing the playoffs back a week). Much less travel plans to rearrange that way and gives the Bills players another week to get used to the idea of playing on the Cincy field again.
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i’m willing to accept criticism for this, but these people on espn saying they lost sleep and were ‘distraught’ when they’ve never met, spoken to or probably even thought about this guy in their lives is ridiculous.
pray for him, sure. but you couldn’t sleep at all last night? pretty sure that’s a weakness. people are being tortured to death right at this moment. millions of people die every day. you never met this guy, you didn’t lose any sleep. and if you did, your priorities are fucked.
i’m not talking about mike tomlin (who’s known him for a while) or anyone else that knew him. i’m talking about herm edwards and anyone else virtue-signaling on tv rn.
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Eh I dunno. For a lot of former players especially, I’m sure there’s sort of a “there but for the grace of God go I” kind of feeling going on, certainly they can identify strongly with the situation and probably feel very similar to those shell-shocked players on the field that had to stand around and watch things unfold. A lot of those guys have seen some shit during their playing days and already know they’re lucky to have come out relatively unscathed.
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No criticism, but I will say that I had trouble getting to sleep last night and I’ve never met the guy. Was feeling very squirrely inside from the whole thing, and I’m not really a super emotional type. Certainly managed to get some sleep though.
I was gonna say, another aspect of it is seeing it unfold in real time, watching him stand up like everything’s fine and then suddenly just drop like that is disturbing. Yes I know people are being tortured to death every day, but you better bet I’d feel a lot more upset and disturbed if I was unfortunate enough to see the torture video firsthand.
I’m not gonna police people’s reactions to seeing someone possibly die on TV, but yeah, it can hit some people harder than others. I watched the Lions Reggie Brown game and it was pretty brutal. I think that one played out a bit differently because we got some pretty quick updates that he was relatively OK, despite also needing CPR on the field . This one seems a lot worse.
Yeah there is something that hits different about thinking you just watched someone die. Weird thing about the human condition - we all know we’re gonna die and worms will eat our body, but still most folks get super squicked out about seeing the thing that happens to everyone happen to someone.
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Seems like pushing back the playoffs a week is the only option then. Or call it a tie.
it can’t be a tie bc it wasn’t tied.
also, i guess i’m desensitized. like if my teammate fell over, yeah. but a guy on another team i’ve never met? and i wasn’t playing in that game? meh. it’s me i guess
Seems like a good call here so far. Defers things for a while, as if Hamlin passes away, the Bills likely just forfeit the rest of the season and you don’t have to disrupt the playoff schedule. If we hit the desired medical miracle, pushing rounds 1/2/3 back a week doesn’t do much since there aren’t tickets or games set yet, and teams have to have their venues available since playoff games don’t get scheduled until at most a week beforehand.
If that is logistically possible, it seems better from a “competitive” standpoint than voiding the game and going 16 game schedule for the Bills/Bengals which obv. disadvantages them both (and the Ravens, and maybe others?).
Don’t see any option other than those two scenarios. If the Bills lose to the Patriots in Week 18 and the Chiefs win, there wouldn’t be any reason to resume Bills/Bengals right? Maybe it would determine who was 2 or 3 between the Bills and Bengals if the Bengals won week 18…settle that scenario with a coinflip and then don’t need to move stuff?
Agree with most of your post except for the above, I give this a literal 0% chance of happening. I think even Hamlin’s family would be like WTF are you doing
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Interesting, admittedly I didn’t think too much about it before typing that. Teammates have died plenty of times in the past sadly, and I know that the team keeps on going. Feels like maybe it would be different if the whole team watched them die on the field, but maybe you are right. I’d still put the chance > 0% though, upon further reflection.
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I would guess not. The general formula on these things is 1) give it a few days, 2) team votes and decides playing is what Hamlin would have wanted (which is true).
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Except I think that part of the emotional response by players/former players/coaches/commentators is dealing with the dissonance between the realities of risks involved in this extremely violent game and the rationalizations that build up in their heads about the acceptable nature of the violence in the NFL. The rationalizations have to be powerful because of the extreme nature of the sport and NFL people who are professional take-havers on TV depend on the league as it is for their ongoing livelihoods. So when the reality comes crashing in and a routine, middle violence collision leads to a deadly close call (fingers crossed), it’s going to be upsetting to them not because they have a real connection with the player, but because those rationalizations are being powerfully and inexorably undermined and those rationalizations are key to a huge part of their world. Fans like me get a taste of it because, while my living doesn’t depend on the NFL, my Sundays do for half the year, and I don’t like to be reminded of the toll the game I love to watch takes on the young players who make it all possible.
So I understand where you’re coming from but I think it’s an understandable and real reaction the take-havers you’re referring to are having.
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