NFL says suspended game won’t resume this week as Damar Hamlin stays in hospital

Hamlin’s injury, following what looked like a routine tackle, has the NFL again answering questions about player safety in a season marred by high-profile injuries.

With millions of fans watching on television, Hamlin, 24, collapsed in the first quarter of a crucial matchup with playoff implications Monday night, forcing the league to suspend the game. As Hamlin lay on the field motionless, medical workers feverishly worked to restart his heart. Players were in tears, the stadium went silent, and fans watched along in distress as a young athlete’s life hung in the balance.

Fans place a sign and candles outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, early Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, in Cincinnati, where Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin was taken after collapsing on the field during an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

After Hamlin’s heartbeat was restored and he was taken off the field by ambulance, the coaches conferred with the head referee and league executives. The players soon walked to their locker rooms. About 30 minutes later, the league postponed the game, and said Tuesday that at minimum, it would not be played this week.

The question of violence has always hovered over NFL contests, even as the league’s popularity has soared. Hamlin’s cardiac arrest was no torn knee or busted ankle. It was potentially life-ending, the most frightening type of injury in a sport built on frightening collisions.

In a brief interview Tuesday, Jordon Rooney, Hamlin’s marketing agent, said Hamlin’s family remained hopeful.

“They’re strong. They’re optimistic,” Rooney said. “They’re being as patient as they can be.”

The Bills said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that Hamlin remained in critical condition at the intensive care unit of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Dorrian Glenn, an uncle of Hamlin, told reporters outside the hospital that his nephew had to be resuscitated twice, once at the stadium and again later at the hospital. He added that Hamlin had improved in terms of the amount of oxygen needed to be given to him through a ventilator. “They’re trying to get him to breathe on his own,” Glenn told NFL Network.

Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, said in a memo sent to teams Tuesday that the league had not decided whether to finish the game. The Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals are vying for the American Football Conference’s lone bye in the first round of the playoffs heading into the last weekend of the regular season. No immediate changes were made to the slate of games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Goodell said.

The NFL, which earns about $20 billion annually, has become America’s biggest league despite exposing its players to significant health risks. It has had a high number of close contests and jaw-dropping plays this season and been richly rewarded by broadcasters and sponsors with its biggest games still ahead.

About nine minutes into Monday’s game, Hamlin tackled Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin stood up, took two steps and collapsed backward. His body went limp.

The reaction was swift, predictable and confusing. There were expressions of support. Sensing the gravity of the situation, many NFL teams sent well wishes to Hamlin on Twitter. Millions of dollars were donated overnight to a fundraiser that Hamlin had previously set up to pay for toy drives and other activities for children.

At the same time, television viewers heard Joe Buck, ESPN’s play-by-play broadcaster for the game, say that the players were told they would have about five minutes to get ready to play again. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could be seen tossing a football.

“That’s the word we get from the league and the word we get from down on the field, but nobody’s moving,” Buck said.

In a news conference about three hours later, the NFL denied there was any consideration given to restarting the game.

“Immediately, my player hat went on,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president for football operations and a former cornerback, said to reporters. “How do you resume play after you’ve seen such a traumatic event occur in front of you in real time?”

Whatever the truth, football fans — and even former star players — are asking again whether the game they enjoy is worth the risk. Ryan Clark, a former defensive back who is now an analyst on ESPN, said many players fool themselves into thinking they are modern-day gladiators when in fact they are highly paid entertainers smashing their bodies for a living.

“We use these cliches. ‘Going to war,’ ‘willing to die,’ ‘give it all,’” Clark wrote on Twitter on Monday night. “That’s all talk. It’s a game. A game! You never suit up & think you’re not going to make it home.”

Coaches, too, appeared to be grappling with the challenges of football and an event that has thrown their hard-and-fast rhythms off-kilter. Coaches for several teams canceled scheduled conference calls with reporters, though many continued their preparation for this weekend’s games. Many practices were scheduled to resume Wednesday.

Hamlin’s collapse was far from the only example of football’s “next man up” culture in a league in which the lack of guaranteed contracts incentivizes players to return to action as soon as possible. Indeed, Hamlin had joined the Bills’ starting lineup in September as a replacement for safety Micah Hyde, who has been out with a neck injury.

Injuries and even deaths are not uncommon in football. Every year, a handful of high school football players die, some from heatstroke, some from broken necks. Families and communities are shattered. Yet while participation in high school football has slipped in recent years, it remains the most popular sport among boys.

The NFL is in another realm because it has turned the game into mass entertainment, complete with cheerleaders, packed stadiums and big-name sponsors. Few fans were watching the preseason game in 1978 when New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley was paralyzed after a hit by Jack Tatum of the Oakland Raiders. Now many more games are played in prime time, and big plays — even injuries — swiftly ricochet across the internet.

The NFL knows the game’s violence has turned off some fans, and has watched families steer their sons into baseball, basketball and soccer. The league takes pains to tell fans how it is trying to “make the game safer.” In 2019, the league produced a video on how to recognize and rescue players who suffer sudden cardiac arrest.

But tackle football centers on bigger, stronger and faster players crashing into one another, and no amount of dollars, training and good intentions will change that. The best the NFL can do is reduce risk, not eliminate it.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.