The NFL caught heaps of flak for its reported initial handling of Monday night's Bills-Bengals game after the chilling Damar Hamlin scene.
After Hamlin had his heartbeat restored on the field and left Paycor Stadium in an ambulance, it was reported that Cincinnati and Buffalo players were going to be given five minutes to regroup before play resumed. This plan did not go through, as the primetime Week 17 game was officially postponed roughly an hour after the 24-year-old Hamlin went down.
And according to Troy Vincent, a game restart after a five-minute pause was not something the league ever considered. The NFL's vice president of football operations shot down the report in a conference call shortly after midnight Tuesday.
"I'm not sure where that came from," Vincent told reporters, per The Buffalo News. "Frankly, there was no time period for the players to get warmed up. Frankly, the only thing that we asked was that (referee) Shawn (Smith) communicate with both head coaches to make sure they had the proper time inside the locker room to discuss what they felt like was best. So, I'm not sure where that came from -- five minutes warm up never, never crossed my mind, personally. And I was the one -- I'm saying 'I' not to be selfish -- but the one that was communicating with the commissioner. We never, frankly, it never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That's ridiculous. That's insensitive, and that's not a place that we should ever be in."
Vincent added: "Tonight, both coaches were understandable about where we were. Neither coach, frankly, was talking about resuming play. The players weren't. The medical staff, the player union official, real time broadcast partners, just trying to make sure that we were keeping everyone abreast of what had taken place and what we were thinking prior to the decision being made. At this particular juncture, both the head coaches came back, got on the phone with myself and communicated with the commissioner. We just felt like collectively that it was time to communicate with the general public of those that were in the stadium that we were going to postpone play. That was just kind of walking you through what was happening real time, who we were communicating with, myself personally."
As of early Tuesday morning, there was no word on what the NFL plans to do with Bills-Bengals, a contest that carries significant playoff implications. But far more important is the status of Hamlin, who is in critical condition.
