There was a popular take within the sports world about NFL player safety after Damar Hamlin went down Monday night in Cincinnati.
Bob Costas isn’t on board with it.
Hamlin had a cardiac arrest and needed to have his heartbeat restored at Paycor Stadium after making a first-quarter hit on Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. As the scary situation unraveled, many pointed to Hamlin’s collapse as another example of the athletic brutality that can only be found in the NFL.
Costas doesn’t see it this way, however, and he explained why during a CNN appearance.
“Throughout the conversation tonight, I think there’s been a generalization made,” Costas sad. “As you know, I’m the last person to act as an apologist for football. But there’s been a generalization made that sort of goes like this: This shows you just how dangerous football is. I think this particular circumstance does not fall into that category. Any contact sport, of course, brings with it the possibility of injury or some sort of tragic event. But as Dr. (Sanjay) Gupta said in the last hour, that could also be a line drive back to the mound that hits a pitcher with a hard line drive at just the wrong millisecond, at just the wrong spot close to the heart and you get some sort of arrhythmia and this is what could happen.
“But to say this is unique to football or that this sort of thing is typical in football just isn’t factual. Is it tragic? Is it concerning? Yes. Did they make the right decision by not going out to play? Yes. But does this fall into the category of another piece of evidence about how uniquely dangerous football is among team sports? I don’t think so.”
Hamlin, 24, was in critical condition after being sedated early Tuesday morning, per an announcement from the Bills.
