Cincinnati, OH: The NFL was flipped on its head on Monday by a brutal injury to Bills Safety Damar Hamlin. We’ve all seen paralysis and other brutal injuries in football, but never an ambulance and a player getting CPR right on the field. As I write on Monday night, Hamlin is in critical condition.
I had a nice little Monday off, a visit to my Dad’s and a hike with my wife and daughters. I later sat down to watch the much anticipated battle between the Bengals and Bills and root for my guys in a fantasy football championship. I was vaguely aware I had to throw a post together, most likely some kind of celebration of the Giants’ surprise run to the playoffs. Well, my priorities got rearranged pretty quickly.
Out, out, brief candle. Life it but a walking shadow. – Shakespeare
The big question to me is who the F decided they should re-start the game in five minutes? If it was the NFL, that’s some cold hearted sh!t right there. The NFL has a long history of not caring about its players, but maybe take a damn breath here. That was a really bad look. Hey, what about our ratings?
I’m not sure if it was admirable or not for Stephon Diggs to try to fire up the team to get back out there. They weren’t having it. Kudos to McDermott and Taylor and more compassionate heads for ignoring that crap. You can’t re-start the game after that. Even waiting as long as they did seemed unnecessary. It felt like they were hoping for good news from the hospital so they could give the go ahead.
I’ve had plenty of thoughts about boycotting the NFL over the years. They have given us lots of reasons. But the lack of concern about the players’ health or action when the breadth of CTE issues became clear was a pretty good one.
The NFL is going to have to pretend to care about this. Otherwise people might start to ask themselves if this kind of crap is worth it. It’s a modern day gladiator arena. And at this point we can’t blame the NFL without taking some of the blame ourselves. We consume the sh!t of out it – we watch the games, play fantasy football, go to bars, bet on it, etc. It’s a giant ecosystem. This game needs some changes and we have to demand them or them won’t happen. Brutal night.
Choices are for one and all, all we are is leaves that fall. That’s all. – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Damar Romeyelle Hamlin, born March 24th, 1998, is the son of Mario and Nina Hamlin. He has one brother. Damar is a 24-year old safety who went to Pittsburgh. He was a 6th round pick by the Bills in 2020 from McKees Rock, PA.
I hope that as you read this, he’s stable and doing better.
