The Night Sports Became Irrelevant

It is 5:55 PM on a Monday night. I just got home from work and am eating carrots and hummus. I was laying on the beam bag and my wife Steph is laying on the couch. The Bengals were up 7 to 3 midway through the first Quarter over the visiting Bills. Joe Burrow drops back to pass and finds Tee Higgins over the middle of the field wide open. Higgins runs full speed ahead and gets into Bills territory before getting tackled by Bills Safety Damar Hamlin at the 48 yard line. The crowd is going crazy as Joe Burrow looks in the zone tonight. This is not just any regular season NFL game. This may be the biggest regular season Football game we had since the Colts Pats battled off as 7-0 juggernauts back in 2007. At the conclusion of this play though nobody on the field or watching on television is thinking anymore about this football game. Damar Hamlin is on the ground and he isn’t moving. By the look on the faces of his Bills teammates you immediately can tell this is not your normal football injury. We see the replay soon after the first responders come onto the field. Higgins barrels into Hamlin for what seemed like a normal football tackle, Higgins barreling into Hamlin’s chest with Hamlin wrapping Higgins up and taking him to the ground. Hamlin would get up but immediately collapse. He laid there for 10 minutes without any movement in his extremities before being moved into an ambulance and immediately taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center for further evaluation.

Referee Sean Smith announced soon after Hamlin was taken out of Paycor Stadium there would be a five minute intermission to allow the players to warm up. With the devastated look on the players faces on both sides this seemed ridiculous and it clearly was. The Bills would gather around in prayer right in front of where Hamlin fell. Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott could not compose himself. Bills Quarterback Josh Allen (maybe the toughest QB in the game playing through a serious elbow injury) looked like he was lost in a different dimension. The teams would eventually go back to the locker rooms. About an hour later (maybe a little too long for my taste but this is an unprecedented event in American sports history) the NFL would postpone this game until further notice with no immediate time to make up the game. I think we all agree to make this game a no contest as it would be in good taste to not make these teams resume this football game.

Steph and I would watch in horror, I texted a couple of my good friends who were Bills fans to check in. My friend Joe who lives in Vancover Washington drove 30 minutes into Portland Oregon to a Bills bar to watch this big game with many of his Bills Mafia brethren would immediately leave the bar. He could not endorse or stomach watching another minute of this telecast and would immediately leave the bar after it was apparent this was a serious matter. My other Bills fan friend would later tell me this is the first time he has ever cried watching a sporting event. I’ve watched football ever since Joe Montana’s 49ers thumped John Elway’s Broncos in Super Bowl 24. That was 33 years ago, I remember the Tua injury earlier this season, I remember the Ryan Shazier injury in 2017, I even remember the Kevin Everett injury in 2007. These were all traumatic injuries that terrified fans and players alike. The important thing about these injuries was all of these players (even though later we found out Everett actually did suffer life threatening injuries) they weren’t on the verge of dying on the field. The code has always been the game must go on. But this was unprecedented, the only documented time I could find a player dying during the game was Lions Wide Receiver Chuck Hughes in a game against the Chicago Bears in 1971. Hughes died form arteriosclerosis heart disease, Hughes did mention earlier in the game of pain in his stomach and chest. But with no diagnosis of previous heart disease he was allowed to continuing playing and just suddenly collapsed on the field and passed an hour later at a nearby hosptial of what was diagnosed as a heart attack. They actually finished the final 62 seconds of that game which seems inconceivable, but 1971 was a different time.

The world awaits the status of Demar Hamlin’s health. It’s now been 28 hours since Hamlin collapsed on the field of play but we still know very little. We know Hamlin is in critical condition, we know Hamlin is still being administered breathing tubes. We had a lot of educated guesses from high medical professionals and it’s logical to think that Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest from his collision with Tee Higgins. It’s a fluky injury and something I hope to never see again in my lifetime or any of my loved ones lifetime, just an absolute tragedy.

How do these two teams play football next week? Is it fair to ask these teams to play football next week? Is it fair to ask any football team to play next week. Pro basketball, college basketball and hockey all resumed their normal schedule tonight. Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavilers scored 71 points in a game last night (which is the most since the late Kobe Bryant scored 81 in 2006). There was an uproar of tweets from tone deaf Cavs fans on twitter applauding Mitchell’s performance. I did not respond to the tweet but my first thought was who cares. I enjoy writing about sports, watching sports, talking about sports and occasionally (very poorly mind you) playing sports. But I realize this one thing first and foremost, sports is entertainment. It is an escape from our everyday world. But when a player literally is lying on a field needing to have his heart resuscitated twice it is time for us to realize that sports is a great escape but there is a time when we need to realize our family and friends mean more. There is a time when we need to realize the game must stop and we must appreciate the risks all of these players take just by taking the field to play the game we love. There is a time we have to realize that life is more important than the final score. I wanted to thank the ESPN crew for their elegance in handling an impossible telecast to broadcast. I want to thank the Bengals fans for the class they showed in support of the Bills safety who is still fighting for his life at this very moment. This is humanity at its finest, if that doesn’t choke you up and show how beautiful the world is that is you a problem man. A football will be snapped again, but at this point and time as the wise man once said, who gives a s***. Demar Hamlin’s health is what we should all care about right now. If Hamlin can make it through this and be able to hug his family and teammates again, maybe then we can ask that question. But for right now, I think it’s safe to say we should spend some time with our loved ones, because they are the ones that truly matter. Prayers for Demar Hamlin, hope there is a belated Christmas miracle in Cincinnati, were all rooting for this one.