Damar Hamlin Tragedy on Monday Night Football
Entering the Monday Night Football match in Cincinnati, Ohio, the night was supposed to be an incredible one for the NFL season. Coming into the game, the two teams: the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills, had the highest combined wins of any two teams entering a Monday night game in NFL history. However, the night abruptly ended early in the first quarter as tragedy struck at the Paycor Stadium.
As quarterback Joe Burrow led the Bengals towards the Bills' endzone, he connected with wide receiver, Tee Higgins, who eventually stopped via a tackle from Buffalo Bills safety, Damar Hamlin. The pair got up unharmed by the hit until Hamlin collapsed seconds after returning to his feet. The play was immediately stopped as medics sprinted onto the field to tend to Hamlin, who remained motionless after collapsing to the ground. Later it was revealed to be the result of a cardiac arrest. An ambulance came onto the field as players, coaches, and staff alike tried to protect Hamlin from the cameras. Cameras did catch the horrified expressions of many players, including Buffalo Bills quarterback, Josh Allen, teary-eyed with his hands over his face at the sight of his teammate being escorted off the field. The hit raised questions about the NFL and how they manage player health, not for the first time this season, as many called for the league to be canceled.
When the injury occurred, many athletes, sports analysts, and fans voiced their opinions on Twitter to show their support. Bengals player Tee Higgins, who was involved in the incident, tweeted that his prayers and thoughts go out to the Hamlin family. Many other athletes also gave their prayers to Damar Hamlin, like Lebron James who tweeted: “praying for you kid”. Damar Hamlin started a toy drive in his last year of college, with the goal to raise twenty-five hundred dollars, to purchase toys for kids in the Pittsburgh area. That number has been exceeded exponentially with, at the time of writing, the toy drive surpassing 8.5 million dollars. Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, tweeted “praying hard…… please be okay man.” Denver Broncos starting Quarterback, Russel Wilson, also tweeted out his support for Hamlin, “Wow. I am praying for you [Damar Hamlin] Praying for health and safety.”
In the following days after the incident, the NFL worked on a solution to make all parties happy, eventually resulting in the cancellation of the game. With playoff implications on the line as well, the solution is for a neutral AFC championship game, if Buffalo or Cincinnati plays Kansas City in the match. On the final Sunday of the regular season, NFL teams showed support for Damar Hamlin by wearing shirts with the number three on them and highlighting the number three on each thirty-yard line.
Three days after the hit, Hamlin finally woke up and talked to his teammates for the first time, telling them all, “I love you boys.” Pushed on by Hamlin, the Bills clinched the number two seed in the NFL playoffs on an emotional day at Highmark Stadium. When Nyheim Hines scored a kickoff return touchdown in the first play of the game, Hamlin set off all the alarms in his hospital room while celebrating according to his doctors. After the match, Bills quarterback, Josh Allen, stated, “It was just spiritual,” before adding, “I was going around, just something I was going around my teammates saying ‘God’s real.’”
The game of football is incredibly important for many people, but after Damar Hamlin’s injury, it put the true importance of football into perspective. When Hamlin wrote the question, “Did we win?” on a piece of paper after awakening, the doctors wrote back to him an important message that perfectly exemplifies the situation. “The answer is yes, Damar, you won. You’ve won the game of life.” As at the end of the day, the game of life is far more important than the game of football.
By Connor Biglari and Luke Birch