There’s been conflicting reports and opinions ever since Monday night’s Week 17 game between the Bills and Cincinnati Bengals, rooted in the idea the NFL prolonged its decision to suspend the game despite seeing the severity of the injury to Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin.
Hamlin, following a collision with Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, fell to the ground and went into cardiac arrest. His heartbeat needed to be restored on the field at Paycor Stadium before he was taken by ambulance to a Cincinnati hospital. He remains sedated in the ICU in critical condition, though the Bills revealed Wednesday that Hamlin has improved in his recovery.
The point of contention lies in regards to something shared by veteran broadcaster Joe Buck during the ESPN “Monday Night Football” broadcast. Buck said multiple times that players were informed they would be given a five-minute period to warm up prior to the game’s restart. Seeing as though the game has since been postponed, the restart never took place. However, it irked many that the league would even consider resuming the game.
Troy Vincent, NFL vice president of football operations, vehemently denied that rumor both late Monday night and again Wednesday. Vincent called it both “ridiculous” and “insensitive” on Monday night, only for ESPN to release a statement Tuesday standing by its reporting.
The situation was brought up to Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who spoke with the media Wednesday for the first time since the Hamlin incident. Taylor shared that he did not feel pressured by anyone about having his players return to the field.
“I didn’t feel any directive that guys need to start warming up. It was just, let’s particularly give Buffalo space to process as a team,” Taylor said, per the team. “Because they had not done that. They had just been there for Damar. So then, we’ve been through this situation a million times where there’s an injury on the field, something happens on the field and just the natural process is you give yourself a couple minutes.
“There was no push for anything to happen, it was just, let’s let these moments play out and see what the next step is as people get a chance get their minds right and ultimately that’s what led the decision there,” Taylor said.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was seen throwing the football on the field, which made some believe the NFL did, in fact, direct players to resume the game. ESPN’s Lisa Salters also shared on the network that she saw Bills receiver Stefon Diggs try to motivate his teammates, gaining the sense he thought the game would resume, as well.
Taylor, though, said returning between the lines was not on anyone’s mind.
“I think everyone needed moments to process what had happened. Because again, that’s really why I wanted to divulge the situation,” Taylor said Wednesday. “While everyone was on the field firsthand, feeling and seeing the emotions that were happening, not one person was thinking about what was about to happen (in the game). So until that ambulance drove away, that was probably the first moment where anybody really thought about why we were on the field in the first place.
“And I think everyone just needed a few moments to process, separate and process, and then ultimately the officials did a great job of just allowing us to do that,” Taylor continued. “And once you get wind that Buffalo needs to talk about it a little bit more, particularly (Bills head coach) Sean (McDermott), that’s when we went over there. Again, when the first thing out of Sean’s mouth is, ‘I need to be there at the hospital with Damar,’ that’s kind of a no-brainer for everybody that’s involved in that situation to separate and let the NFL take the next steps, which they did.”
The NFL has yet to reveal any plan regarding the Week 17 game. The league shared Bills-Bengals will not be played this week, with plans to continue Week 18 as previously scheduled. The framework behind a potential resumption of Bills-Bengals at a later time, however, is still being discussed.
