Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse: The scene and the Bills’ immediate reaction to it

[Buddy]

Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse: The scene and the Bills’ immediate reaction to it

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[StraightJ]

I don't know about some of you, but it's not exactly easy for me when I see the players reacting like that.  If the picture gets too big, I think it's a risk worth taking for these articles.  It's part of a theme I had mentioned recently, including the QB room thread......how CLOSE this team is.   ESPN's Bills reporter kept going on about it.....  I think she used the word "INSANELY" close, and that was one of the things I listed for Bills advantages.

 

 

 

 

CINCINNATI, OHIO - JANUARY 02: Tre'Davious White #27 and Mitch Morse #60 of the Buffalo Bills react to teammate Damar Hamlin #3 collapsing after making a tackle against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter at Paycor Stadium on January 02, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
By Joe Buscaglia and Tim Graham
49m ago

CINCINNATI — As medical personnel urgently performed CPR on Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin after he collapsed to the Paycor Stadium turf Monday night, his teammates struggled to decipher watching the 24-year-old fight for his life while playing a game.

Quarterback Josh Allen cupped his hands over his mouth in disbelief. Cornerback Tre’Davious White cried into a teammate’s embrace. Offensive tackle Spencer Brown buckled to a knee. Wide receiver Stefon Diggs put his hands on top of his head. The entire Bills sideline spilled onto the field to show support, slowly creeping closer and their concern growing deeper. Once they got a closer look, many began to pray. Others turned their backs in horror.

With 5:58 left in the first quarter of a hotly anticipated showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals, medical personnel rushed to Hamlin’s aid after he tackled Tee Higgins, an otherwise ordinary-looking play. The Bills early Tuesday morning announced Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest after the tackle.

The medical staff unscrewed Hamlin’s facemask, quickly gave him oxygen from a portable tank and appeared to administer CPR for about eight minutes.

A stretcher came out for him first. Then an ambulance emerged from the Bills’ tunnel and waited. Members of the Bills and Bengals continued to inch closer until officials ordered everyone to back away to give the medical professionals room to work.

The Bills formed an arc around Hamlin. Not all could watch. Some joined their brotherly hands. Some stared alone in stunned silence.

Dane Jackson, the cornerback who played college ball with Hamlin at Pittsburgh, wouldn’t go anywhere near the scene. They’ve been incredibly close for years. When Jackson had to be taken by hospital by ambulance earlier in the season with a neck injury, Hamlin was despondent. Jackson, occasionally burying his head in a towel, stayed beside Diggs and a Bills staffer far away from the rest of the team.

Hamlin was lifted off the ground in a stretcher after being worked on for 15 minutes, leaving the field at approximately 9:10 p.m. ET. As they loaded him into the ambulance, all his teammates had a mile-long stare, trying to process what had happened to Hamlin.

Diggs stayed by the ambulance’s open side door to glimpse his teammate before they closed it and drove Hamlin off the field.

In the immediate aftermath, neither team knew what was next. Bills coach Sean McDermott called over his entire team and staff to genuflect in a prayer huddle. Bengals players began to loosen up on their sideline, likely out of habit. The Bills reluctantly retook their place on the sideline and began to put their helmets back on. Diggs summoned the entire team into a crowd for a message.

Much of the Bills’ defense took the field for the next snap. Bengals coach Zac Taylor didn’t send his offense out, instead crossing the field to McDermott and the officiating crew. Within moments, both teams went to the locker room.

The Bills walked back in near silence, the idling ambulance within their eyesight. The ambulance waited nearly 15 minutes while Paycor Stadium security attempted to locate Hamlin’s loved ones in attendance.

The Bills filed into the locker room as general manager Brandon Beane and chief operating officer Ron Raccuia paced the tunnel from the ambulance to the locker room and back, gathering and sharing updates along the way. Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and other assistants took the press box elevator to field level, an indication Monday night’s game wouldn’t resume any time soon — if at all.

After a woman and a man in Hamlin jerseys met the ambulance, it whisked Hamlin to UC Medical Center at 9:22 p.m.

Bills owner Terry Pegula, Beane and Raccuia, who had been with the ambulance, joined them inside the locker room.

Within 10 minutes, Raccuia and Beane emerged to meet with officials in the tunnel, with referee Shawn Smith on a mobile phone. A few minutes later, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and his fellow captains walked in uniform to the Bills’ locker room to check on them.

The NFL officially suspended the game at 10:07 p.m. — 43 minutes after the game had been paused — but not without confusion over its intentions to keep playing. Hamlin’s marketing representative, Jordon Rooney, tweeted about an hour after Hamlin arrived at the hospital his “vitals are back to normal and they have put him to sleep to put a breathing tube down his throat.”

Diggs was spotted entering UC Medical Center to see Hamlin, but most of the Bills remained at Paycor Stadium until their buses departed for the airport at 12:26 a.m. to return home.

ESPN wondered how the league could inform players they had five minutes to loosen up before restarting the game, suggesting it was McDermott and Taylor who decided to leave the field. But on a midnight conference call, NFL executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent said, “It never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play. That’s ridiculous. It’s insensitive. And that’s not a place that we should ever be in.”

At 1:48 a.m., the Bills organization issued a statement on Hamlin’s condition, saying that he had suffered cardiac arrest. “His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment,” the statement read. “He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”

(Photo: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)

 

 

[HipKat]

Sigh....

[BostonTim]

4 hours ago, HipKat said:

Sigh....

Sorry to see what happened over here my friend.  Be well.

I and many others here are praying. Terrible moment.  All the best.

 

BostonTim

[SpikedLemonade]

**** THREAD CLOSED ****

PLEASE SEE OFFICIAL DAMAR THREAD

[BostonTim]

My first post since last years chiefs, SL, game and you want to immediately shut down the thread? :rofl: Just kidding

[SpikedLemonade]

Just trying to direct all Damar news traffic so I can take a nap and not wake up to 22 threads on Damar I need to read.

I am getting to become a selfish old bastard these days.

[RichJ]

53 minutes ago, BostonTim said:

My first post since last years chiefs, SL, game and you want to immediately shut down the thread? :rofl: Just kidding

nah.. Keep going. Thankfor posting

[Herodotus]

Someone is going on to ignore, lets see if you can guess who it is and why

[RichJ]

[HipKat]

10 hours ago, BostonTim said:

Sorry to see what happened over here my friend.  Be well.

I and many others here are praying. Terrible moment.  All the best.

 

BostonTim

Thanks Tim!