What happened to Damar Hamlin in Monday night's football game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals has no precedent in NFL history. Not even the brutal hit by Jack Tatum on Darryl Stingley in a 1978 preseason game that left Stingley paralyzed comes close.
An entire nation saw a football player suffer a cardiac arrest after making what looked like a routine tackle. And had it not been for the quick and skilled response of medical professionals in the stadium, he would never have made it to the hospital alive. Even now, this young man remains in critical condition. Assuming he survives, he is in for a very long recovery. Every decent and caring human being, fan of the sport or not, needs to keep him, his family and teammates in their prayers.
But while it was correct for the league to postpone the game Monday night after it was obvious the players and coaches were too distraught to continue, its subsequent decision Tuesday to not resume it this week is a mistake. Let me explain.
This was no mere game between two AFC rivals. It had playoff implications for no fewer than four teams: the Bills, the Bengals, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. Going into last weekend, the AFC standings were as follows: 1. Buffalo, 2. Kansas City, 3. Cincinnati, 4. Jacksonville, 5. Los Angeles, 6. Baltimore, 7 New England. Buffalo owns the tiebreaker over K.C. by virtue of a win against them in week six.
Had the Bengals beaten the Bills, they would've leapfrogged past them into the number two seed in the conference. Why is that important? Because the number two seed gets an additional home game in the playoffs. Had the Bills won, they likely would've clinched the number one seed, assuming they beat the Patriots this Sunday.
But here's the problem. Without this game in the standings, the Chiefs are now the number one seed in the conference by a half game, meaning if the Chiefs and Bills both win on Sunday, Buffalo's path to the Super Bowl would, once more, have to go through Arrow Head Stadium where they are 0 for 2 in the postseason.
But wait, it gets worse. The Ravens, who have already beaten the Bengals once this season, could've captured the AFC North with a win over them on Sunday coupled with a Bengals loss on Monday night. Now, thanks to the suits at Park Avenue, the Ravens will have to go on the road as a Wild Card.
You see how one ill-advised decision can have a domino effect?
Why would the league do such a thing knowing the ramifications? Public image, that's why. Let's be honest here for a moment. For years, the NFL has had a reputation for not giving a shit about its players. And to be honest, they haven't. The way they initially handled the concussion issue was a disgrace.
I have no doubt that ESPN's reporting about the NFL's wanting to resume Monday night's game in five minutes is accurate. It was only after both teams walked off the field and into their respective locker rooms that the league knew it had fucked up. So they went into damage control mode, which is what they seem to excel at. If you want to know why Roger Goodell constantly gets booed at every Draft, this is why. No other professional sports commissioner is more loathe by both fans and players alike than him.
So rather than just admit they made a mistake, they decided to compound the mistake by making another, worse mistake. Mark my words, the very same people who are now self-righteously beating their chests proclaiming that "it's just a game" or "it doesn't matter" will be the first to scream bloody murder when their team loses in the playoffs because they had to play on the road instead of at home. I know fans; I know how they think, because I'm one of them.
The fact is football isn't "just" a game. It hasn't been for a very long time. It's a multi-billion dollar enterprise that is the number one sport in North America and the number two sport in Europe. You think ESPN pried Joe Buck and Troy Aikman away from Fox because they had a few extra million laying around in petty cash? They did it because it was a smart business decision. In fact, ESPN spends pretty much the entire calendar year talking incessantly about football. Even during the World Series, it got more attention.
Call me silly, but I happen to think it's possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. You can sympathize with what Hamlin and his family are going through while at the same time wanting a consequential game to be completed. It shouldn't be either or. That's a false choice, in my opinion. The correct course of action would be for the league to resume the game Thursday night and then push back both teams' subsequent Sunday games to Monday night. That way every team would play a full compliment of 17 games. More importantly, the playoff seeding would be accurate.
Knowing the NFL and its propensity for fucking up a sunset, that isn't likely to happen.
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