What Happened

Last night, on Monday Night Football, in the 3rd drive of the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin made a tackle on Bengals Receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin got to his feet. Shortly after, there was word that a Bills player was down, followed by a commercial break. When the broadcast returned, we learned that it was Hamlin, who had collapsed shortly after getting to his feet. We were shown the faces of Buffalo Bills players on the field and on the sideline, and they were horrified. Some were visibly crying. Some had their hands over their faces, in shock. At this point, it started to feel like this was unlike any other routine injury.

Minutes went by as an ambulance came onto the field. Players created a wall around Hamlin and the medical staff, to give them whatever privacy they could give them. News began to come out that Hamlin had a cardiac event caused by the impact to his chest on the tackle. As someone watching the game, talking to others who were watching the game, we were all uncertain as to whether or not Hamlin was alive or not. A friend of mine who is a practicing Doctor sent our group a link to the term Commotio Cordis and told us that 9 minutes of CPR wasn’t a good sign.

Hamlin was taken off the field in an ambulance. We didn’t know what his condition was at the time. A report came through that the ambulance waited in the parking lot until his mother could get there and ride with him. It was absolutely gut wrenching to watch, as a spectator, at home.

The Football Game

Everyone I was talking to that was watching the game were all saying, how do you go on and play a game after that? You can’t. If they did, there was no way I was going to watch it. For a moment, it looked and sounded as though they were going to continue on with the game. It was unbelievable. The camera then showed Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills, Sean McDermott, on the field talking to Head Coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, Zac Taylor, with the Head Official there. When they walked away from each other, they took their respective teams with them, back to the locker rooms.

Word would come that this wasn’t the NFL’s decision. This was the decision of the players and coaches; and good for them. They told the NFL, on the phone in the tunnel, that no further football was going to be played that night.

More Than Football

Seeing Damar Hamlin go down and knowing it was a cardiac event erased any care at all about this game or which team you were a fan of, and put the sole focus on hoping that Hamlin was okay. This was the sole focus of most fans watching this game in the stadium and at home, and was rightfully the sole focus of his coaches and teammates.

Of course there will be people in this world that can’t bring themselves to comprehend, or feel this. It is an absolute shame though, that the top brass of the National Football League assumed this game would still be played and took so long to officially call it canceled. This is emblematic… sign and symptom… of so much of what is rotten to the core in our greater society.

Thank goodness for people that do the right thing no matter what, and that the NFL has a powerful players union that can stand up to the NFL in the event they compelled these teams to continue against their will.

The Greater Impact

It has been a tough year for the City of Buffalo. In the spring of 2022, the city was rocked by a senseless tragedy that was racially motivated. In November, Western New York was rocked by a snow storm that dumped more than six feet in some areas, resulting in loss of life, damaged public infrastructure, and local businesses closing. A month later, the city proper was slammed with a blizzard that brought historic wind chills, wind gusts, and several feet of snow, resulting in more tragedy and loss of life.

The NFL and the sport of football deserve criticism. For as much criticism as they deserve, for better or worse, the City of Buffalo finds refuge in its football team. There are many things out there dividing us all up, pitting us against each other. Again, for better or worse, Buffalo Bills football is something that brings people in Western New York together, over and above all else.

Most of the folks in the area, and anyone formerly from the area that have moved elsewhere, have a connection to Buffalo, and to each other, through support for this team. It’s part of the city’s identity. Support for this team serves as something like a proxy for support for Buffalo; for a place so many call home, whether it’s their actual physical home, or a home they hold dear in their hearts.

Collective Empathy and Trauma – Shared and Personal

Watching Damar Hamlin go down, knowing what he was struggling to survive through, sent a jolt, especially but not only through those closest to him, but everyone watching at the stadium and at home.

Listening to sports radio this morning, some of the callers coming through were professional folks wanting to offer their medical knowledge and expertise, but many of the callers, from Buffalo and around the country, were sharing their empathy and emotional trauma. Caller after caller shared how cardiac arrest affected their lives, or the lives of their families.

Listening to these callers, I began to realize there was something deeper pulling at my own personal emotional reaction. I lost my father at age eighteen to a medical event that occurred suddenly, overnight, with no one awake to help him. I lost my mother a few years ago to a cardiac event. People are experiencing seeing this, or even hearing about it, in a number of ways, empathetic and personal. Sports radio hosts are acting like counselors this morning, as they themselves audibly lose their emotional composure.

When people found out about Damar Hamlin’s Go Fund Me drive to raise money to donate toys to kids in his hometown community, people used their wallets to show their support and well-wishes for Hamlin and his family. His fundraising drive had a goal of $2,500. As of noon on January 3rd, his drive has reached $4 Million.

The Bigger Picture

I’ve personally seen how someone’s life can be so dramatically altered by the game of football. Someone I went to college with took a hit and collapsed in the middle of the field. That play left him paralyzed. He was a sophomore. Not even 20 years old. I’m certain there are other stories like this. Every story like it is one too many.

The Buffalo Bills, Damar Hamlin’s team, experienced the life altering injury of one of their players in 2007, when Tight End Kevin Everett suffered a serious spinal injury on the field. At the time, Everett’s injury was called life threatening.

There’s the issue of multiple concussions. The longer someone plays football, the more likely multiple concussions are. Multiple concussions can lead to CTE. When I think of how much multiple brain injuries can affect someone’s health and well-being and those around them I think of the tragic case of professional wrestler Chris Benoit. While that is a uniquely extreme case, the affects of repeated brain injury can be significant, for the person and the folks that care for and about them.

There’s a lot that can be said… there’s debate that could be had about contact sports, especially football… and CTE… what changes could or should be made to the game… if the game should continue to exist at all, now or in the future in its present state, or if it should be changed so dramatically to the point it becomes something different entirely, while trying to maintain the essence of it… in addition to the amount of public funding that gets spent on building and renovating stadiums… and the catalysts that mobilize people to rally toward a cause when others don’t even register on the public consciousness.

All of those debates should be had, and had in earnest.

Right now, I just hope that Damar Hamlin pulls through. Pull through, Hamlin.