What transpired on Monday Night Football left the entire football world speechless. Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is currently in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital after collapsing on-field in the first quarter.
Shortly after the incident, both Zac Taylor and Sean McDermott talked and seemed to agree there was no chance they could make their players resume the game on Monday night, let alone anytime in the near future.
With Hamlin’s medical status still unknown, and the report of the young man suffering cardiac arrest, all that matters at this stage is his health and well-being.
But, the NFL is a business and many fans were worried about the league mandating the two teams resume play sooner than what they would feel comfortable with. As of Tuesday afternoon, though, we’ve received an official update from the league on the status of resuming the highly-anticipated matchup.
— NFL (@NFL) January 3, 2023
With Damar Hamlin’s health priority number one, the Bills and Bengals will not resume play this week.
Many fans’ worst fears did not come to fruition, thankfully. There was speculation all over social media that the league could resume play on Wednesday night without interfering with Week 18’s schedule.
However, making these players go back out on that field just 48 hours after watching one of their brothers suffer such a tragic accident would be criminal. Understand that the NFL is a business, yes, but at the end of the day this is uncharted territory.
We have never seen something like this. The league, in no way, could possibly prepare for an instance like this. But, it seems that they are handling it well thus far.
The well-being of Hamlin, his family, teammates and other loved ones has to come first. Football is not important at this time, not in the least bit.
Good on the NFL for making this quick decision in regards to the respect of Hamlin and his loved ones. As we have done with recent posts, here is an update on Hamlin’s toy drive which you can donate to if you’d like to support him.