For Damar
We witnessed history last night, but it wasn’t history any of us wanted to witness.
I think all of us, to one degree or another, have all come to terms with Football as violence and have found ways to push those worries aside to continue enjoying the game as much as we do. Deep down though, I think we all feared a moment like this. This is about as close to the worst case scenario we can imagine. As of writing, it isn’t. Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition, but he is still alive. I do not know what tomorrow brings. He’s in the best hands he could be right now. All we can do is hope.
It isn’t even something that we can particularly blame on the nature of football, to be honest. Football’s relationship with violence is an ongoing discussion that I won’t have here but this incident feels like a freak accident. It was almost as routine a tackle as you see on any given play, dozens of times every game. It was maybe a harder shot than average, and Hamlin hit the ground a bit hard, which is why I think most of us probably assumed concussion at first glance after he collapsed. But it was wrong. Tee Higgins hit Hamlin with his shoulder as Hamlin wrapped him up, they go to the ground, Hamlin stands up…and just falls backwards. So much sports injury footage is spine-tinglingly gruesome to watch as limbs bend and break and smash against the unforgiving ground. This wasn’t like that. This was almost mundane. It’s not gruesome to watch. The actual horror came later, as the reactions of everyone nearby slowly drove the point home that this…this was different.
We’ve seen horrific limb breaking, players crying, and players unconscious before. It’s never fun. Your heart goes out to the guy and you hope for the best. But the instant we found out CPR was being administered the entire atmosphere changed. It wasn’t injury anymore. It was a literal fight between life and death. When we realized we may have just watched a player die on the field football stopped mattering in the slightest. Only humanity was left. I think the shots of the players struggling to keep it together will haunt me more than the actual footage of Hamlin collapsing. They had the same distant look as the people you see in footage of disaster aftermath in documentaries.
I’ve gone on endlessly about how badly the NFL has handled safety and the like, but for the most part I actually think this entire scenario was handled pretty well. The broadcast mentioned that the teams were given 5 minutes to compose themselves and prepare to resume play, but there seems to be a lot of confusion over who said that. The NFL reps deny giving any order. Many think the refs, who were just as shellshocked, may have given that in a mentally unwell state, because right after the broadcast mentioned it the game got postponed. If anyone genuinely did try to get the game to resume, they are ghouls. That game was over the instant CPR was needed. No one on that field could have possibly played football after that. Massive credit to Zac Taylor, who walked over to McDermott to talk. A lot of people (it is not confirmed as of now) assume that was both of them making the decision to end this game.
It took a bit longer than it should have but the NFL eventually did the right thing and postponed the game for the night. I was worried they’d try to play the game tonight (Tuesday) but the NFL released a statement saying that it will not, and a new date for the game has not materialized. The game probably should not be played, period. Give the players a chance to go somewhere else, to reset their minds, to rest. Call it a draw, give both teams a tie in their record (or simply do not update their records at all).
As for Hamlin, if you are the type who prays, then send as many as you can his way. If you aren’t the type who prays, you can also add a donation to his toy charity, which has already garnered an astounding level of support.
Whether or not I make another comic this week depends on how this plays out. If we get good news, hopefully, I’ll feel like making funny jokes again. As for now, Im just hoping for the best. Hug your loved ones, friends. Thanks for reading.
Well said.
Thanks for this Dave
“It was almost as routine a tackle as you see on any given play”
I think this is what makes it so terrifying. When most imagined this scenario, we were probably thinking it would be an exceptionally brutal collision, almost out of an NFL Blitz game. This was the complete opposite. It was a freak accident on what is normally a routine tackle. It’s just so hard to wrap your mind around it.
Thank you, Dave. What you’re saying about all this – the “this seems like a freak accident, but also brings up our complicated feelings about football’s inherent violence,” the “the players’ faces were even scarier to watch than the collapse” (in my case, especially Josh Allen’s horror and then his lost-looking stare) – certainly strikes a chord with me. I’ve come out feeling like I have a lot to think about in terms of the sport of football, but I’m kind of unsure of what I even mean when I say that. I’m certainly praying for Hamlin, his family, and Tee Higgins.
He grew up near my area it hurts moe to know that we hope he has a speedy recovery and/or lives.
I know this is off topic but, are you going to make a comic about JJ Watt retiring at the end of the season?
yes well done
You got it exactly right, that the moment CPR came out it was like ohhhhh craaaap…It went from “Oh man he must be pretty hurt, hope he’s alright” to “Wait did we just…see a guy literally die???”
As far as the whole thing about making them play, I actually…buy the NFL here for once? I know we rag on them all the time for poor everything, but when a man’s literal life is at stake, maybe I’m too optimistic but I think even the likes of goodell is capable of staying out of it (Which is what the nfl is claiming afaik). But they also could have gone ahead and taken the initiative to cancel the game before the coaches reached a decision, even SVP was ripping the hell out of the NFL for not cancelling the game. So was booger.
I feel like people are being a little too harsh on the NFL here. This was an unprecedented situation and I doubt anyone really knew how exactly to handle it. In the end they either made the call or at the bare minimum agreed with the decision to call the game, which is an extremely difficult decision regardless of how you slice it. It was far from a perfect response, but I think it’s way too much to expect perfection in a case like this.
I agree with you tbh, I think it was just that the NFL’s poor rep got ahead of them in this case. When people immediately thought the game should be cancelled and it did’nt happen right then, people started goin “Well goodell must be pressing behind the scenes!” which tbh isn’t an unfair take, even now I wonder how many people actually buy what hte NFL VP was selling about how goodell wasn’t even contacted. If SVP is ragging on the NFL, I feel he’s respected enough that people with his opinion aren’t really out of line to be upset at the NFL anyway.
If the original plan initially was to resume play, gotta respect the coaches for getting together and then just pulling their teams off the field. It was a nice show of solidarity and it gave them the ability to take any questions to whether the game would resume into their own hands. The sudden collapse was shocking, but the response by the other players was legitimately heartbreaking, and I am glad that some kind of empathy managed to ultimately win out.
Agreed with everything said here. I don’t want to even think about continuing this season until we get some definitive news on his health and I’m hoping it lands on the good side.
Thanks for this, Dave. The outpouring of support for this guy has been incredible and it’s amazing how football has taken a backseat to this until we get a definitive prognosis.
My assumption on why they originally said 5 minutes and then resume game mostly falls on the fact that, not really knowing what to do, the refs went to the rulebook for guidance and that was likely the vague answer it gave for on the field injuries, which this technically was. Obviously not a good answer, and the coaches made the collective decision to call it and the NFL left it at that.
I’m not wholly surprised they don’t have specific rules in place for situations such as this, as from ten thousand feet the answer likely seems obvious, but as you said, everyone was in shock and no one was thinking clearly. Maybe this will prompt some updates for extreme cases.
I think the only hang up anyone might have about just declaring the game a draw or ignoring it, is the fact that the team that would be most hurt by doing so is the Buffalo Bills themselves; though I doubt the players and coaches care about playoff seeding at this point. They definitely made the right call by suspending the game on Monday night. I’m not really sure what the right call is going forward; but I’m very glad I’m not the one who has to make it.
For Damar.
The Bills are in no shape to play this game or the upcoming Week 18 game. The entire league is witnessing a very dark period. I can barely think of anything else football related. I know the NFL has a big time “the show must go on” mindset and divisional games are huge, but I would cancel Week 18 altogether.
Guys either get more rest before the playoffs, or a chance to go home earlier during a lost season. If you’re “in the hunt” you ain’t making it past round 2 anyway. Save the dumb asterisk records, the 17th game was a dumb idea in the first place. The Bills are the team to beat this year but I’m certain that their players are still shaken after what happened. I don’t know how you can expect them to get prepared to play so soon, and I’m sure a lot of other players have seen it and are hesitant to put on pads for a while.
am hearing his condition is improving albeit no other details are being released
leading theory is a rare cardiac event known as commotio cordis, something i read about a long time ago in the context of baseball and taking a direct hit to a very precise spot on the chest. historically seems even more rare in football given the nature of the contact (as opposed to sports with projectiles) but extremely dangerous
all the good vibes and the best medical attention possible for damar
well said
Now that he’s making “remarkable progress” I feel a little better talking about this event.
1. Can’t even imagine what Tee Higgens is going through. The amount of hate I saw go his way for a relatively routine, but abysmally-timed hit is astounding. I’d be really careful to watch his mental health as things move forward. Nobody really knows the kind of guilt he may be feeling for something that absolutely wasn’t his fault.
2. I really want the league to take the mental health of all affected players seriously as well. It’s absolutely a traumatizing event to see someone’s heart stop right in front of you, let alone someone who you know, love, and have battled with on the field.
3. On that note: No need to play the game. Call it a tie if everyone is okay. Call it a no-contest that counts as a loss/tie for both teams for the purposes of seeding. Call it whatever you want, but don’t make these teams play each other again if they aren’t up for it.
4. There’s a lot of pretty insensitive people emerging in the wake of this. Some trying to push some fake anti-vaccine agenda which has no correlation here. But even more there’s some pretty callous people talking about how players “know the risks and things happen”. No. Nobody goes in playing the NFL accepting the fact that they could die. That is not a reality they should have to accept, and not one we should be forcing on them. It’s insensitive at best to assume that they should just “shut up and play” in the wake of such a terrible event.
There’s plenty of people saying “life goes on” or “if I dropped dead at my job everbody would still have to come in the next day!”. That’s not right. That’s toxic. We should expect better of ourselves and FOR ourselves in the face of tragedy.
really appreciate this post
I know this is not at all a popular opinion, but… if I were one of the players on the field that day, I would want to keep playing the game.
Now I realize that this is all a very big deal and I have a ton of empathy for Damar and his situation, and I also understand that my opinion on continuing the game would be grossly unpopular. In fact, I wouldn’t even expect anyone else on the field wearing pads to agree with me and would assume before it happens that the game is postponed or cancelled. But I would still want to keep playing.
We all tend to lose sight of the fact that there are no guarantees in life (except for death and taxes), and our time could be coming at any moment. Just because probabilities suggest we will wake up tomorrow doesn’t mean we actually will. Human beings’ reaction to brushing so closely with mortality as the players in this game did seem to suggest that shutting down is the right step; I disagree. The odds of dying at any given moment absolutely did not change the moment the possibility crossed your mind. If anything, being reminded of your own mortality should make you want to try to achieve your goals faster, instead of taking a step back and away from them and wasting your time. I think for most of these players, hoisting the Lombardi trophy is the goal they’re striving for, and canceling the game and going home isn’t getting them closer to reaching their dreams in the time they have left on this earth.
One thought I keep coming back to is, what if this didn’t happen to a player? What if someone working a concession stand had an aneurysm at the stadium? Would we stop playing for that? Of course not. Okay, how about an assistant ball-boy on the sideline? Hmm, maybe. Where does the line get drawn? Why do we do this for someone in a football uniform and not a concession stand uniform? Does it make any sense where that line gets drawn and why?
As a quick aside, I really don’t want to see this game get outright cancelled. There couldn’t have been a more important game for AFC playoff seeding for this to happen to. There are no easy answers on how to proceed, but I think we can all agree that in fairness to the rest of the hundreds of football players who’ve been putting in the work this season, that canceling this game would be unfair to all of those who are busting their balls trying to achieve greatness.
dude what the fuck
Human life is more important than a trophy.
Is it really that weird? When it happened to Chris Pronger, which was in a playoff game, they continued the game. The guy was really fortunate that he had a very positive outcome and was actually back to playing hockey just days later. I guess it’s just fair to say that I have a blind spot for the human side of this equation and I am more concerned about protocol… how long do we have to put life on hold in an event like this?
Anyway I appreciate being able to post my thoughts on this in an anonymous way and potentially have a discussion on it, because this perspective isn’t something I feel like I can share in a non-anonymous way without being ostracized over it. I want to continue to stress my empathy for Damar and his situation… but eventually we need to talk about what happens next or perhaps why we all reacted the way we did.
Just saw your post got edited… To be fair I never said human life wasn’t more important than a trophy. I just struggle to understand why the lives of a thousand football players needs to be put on hold for one life in particular, when none of those people have any ability whatsoever to help the life that is currently under threat.
I can certainly understand nobody having the appetite to continue to play, and I think I expressed that well enough in my original post, so this isn’t much of a rebuttal, Dave.
You didn’t have to say it. But saying you have a blind spot for humanity and more concern for protocol…understatement of the century
If you are smart enough to recognize that almost everyone, including those players on the field fighting for a championship, would disagree with your take, it’s time to look inward and figure out why, when a player suffered cardiac arrest on the field, you were sitting there going “Well if a beer vendor died they’d still be ballin”. Players are sitting there crying, experiencing what might very well be the most traumatic thing they’ve ever seen in a game, and you are going “yeah but statistically, they won’t also suffer cardiac arrest so why aren’t they ballin”. Announcers are discussing how this is a shocking event the likes of which they’ve never seen as they struggle not to choke up, and you’re like “Well these guys are athletes who play to win so why aren’t they ballin”
Did you have Burrow on your fantasy team in the title game and the stoppage cost you the victory or something?
GonnaGetFlamed is ultimately wrong in his view and even already admitted he overlooked a large portion of the situation. But in my view he’s respectfully asking interesting philosophical questions about life/death, why athletes play sports, etc., that are well worth reflecting on. All the moreso because this is a (good) turning point in sports where the humanity of the players actually took precedence for once. But it definitely hasn’t always been that way and that means it’s worth reflecting on the old rationales (many of which GonnaGetFlamed brought up) and seeing why they’re incorrect. Just because something happened Monday doesn’t mean that decades of what could be called “sports ideology” went away (e.g. the “all that matters in life are rings” mentality of the likes of Brady and Jordan and much of the talk media, that Dave rightly deems as fairly psychotic).
Meanwhile, Dave is right in his view, but his rush to more or less call GonnaGetFlamed a terrible, stupid person here and on twitter is pretty excessive in my opinion. People can have different opinions, even ones that are (*gasp*) wrong, without being terrible and stupid. I feel like adopting that sort of attitude is itself much more incorrect than trying to respectfully discuss ideas that turn out to be mistaken. GonnaGetFlamed is not some Goodell burned account trying to undermine players, he’s just a guy with some views on life and meaning that he’s trying to discuss. So, with all due respect, imo Dave is showing his ass more than Cousins on this one.
Saying that mainly for the chance to make a bad phat dumpy joke, and making this post as a hopefully respectful attempt to enter the discussion. Dave, I’ve been a loyal reader for almost 5 years and have a greatly deepened appreciation of football as a result. So if you’re going to throw me to the flames too, please at least do it right and include an Andy Dalton picture or something.
Wow, you guys are reading far past what I was actually saying and assuming an awful lot of my stance, almost as if you need some enemy in this situation to rally against. And telling me to look inward?
All I was saying is that for ME PERSONALLY, being reminded of my own mortality would drive me to want to make the most of my precious, fleeting time on this earth. And for ME PERSONALLY, if I were an NFL player, football is pretty important. Especially if I didn’t already have a ring on my finger. I would feel more motivated to play, not less. Which we all know is where this is going anyway – the Bills are going to eventually come out and “do this for Damar.” I guess I’m a little faster to the “channel this grief energy into something productive” stage of grief than the average person.
Not once did I say that I would expect anyone else to feel the way I do about it. Not once did I say that the game should continue, or that anyone did anything at all wrong in this situation. I am simply offering up my own perspective of what I think I would do in the situation, shaped by my own experiences.
> it’s time to look inward and figure out why
I already know why. Not to bore you with the details, but the gist is that my mother suffered several debilitating strokes in my youth, and none of the adults in my life back then taught me how to handle really any sort of medical situation. You may not believe this, but it doesn’t make me any less capable of empathy than you, Emeraldegg.
So now that I have shared my perspective, shaped by my own experiences, I hope you can realize that not everyone needs to react to the situation the exact same way that you do, or that the way you experience grief is any more or less valid than the way that I do.
FlameOn? – Thank you for trying to bring this back to the philosophical discussion that I was trying to start in the first place. I still find it strange that nobody here seems to have a problem with us putting the life of a football player far above the life of a concession stand worker. It’s just one of those weird things that humans do, like how we claim life is precious and save endangered species, but then turn around and pave over anthills whenever we build a highway. It’s a weird double-standard that sometimes doesn’t make sense.
But apparently we can’t talk about it without, as you put it, be more or less called a terrible and awful person, and get our words horribly twisted out of context, and then dunked on on twitter. Which certainly isn’t a respectful way to proceed, as you pointed out.
jesus dude, no one was putting the life of the concession stand worker below the football player
the football player almost died ON LIVE TV
IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS
INCLUDING HIS CLOSEST TEAMMATES
you keep divorcing this event from its essential context in your quest to equate it to something that can be unremarkable enough for folks to “push through” and it just isn’t working
god but you’re missing the forest for the fucking anthills. having debates is great but you are swinging and whiffing in the most perplexing ways possible
I’m reading a lot of “I’m not saying this buuuuut” from your words man. “I’m not saying human life isn’t more important” to “I just don’t understand why other players don’t think the trophy is more important than this person’s life.” “I have empathy for Damar and the situation” to “I care more about protocol than the human side of it.”
You can’t walk the fence on this bud, not how it works. If you don’t understand the situation, then just call it like it is and say you’re incapable of actual empathy, don’t try and dress it up in pretty words and faux-intellectualism. Nothing in what you expressed is empathy, you don’t get to claim that. Empathy is understanding that fairness in a sport that serves as nothing but your entertainment does not stack up to the well being of a human life and those affected, like his teammates who might not want to play that game. Is whatever the outcome ended up being perfectly fair? Nope, but that’s just too bad. That’s not what matters.
My comments aren’t about empathy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any. See my reply to Dave above.
Do you know what empathy means? It means “The abilitly to understand the feelings and emotions of others.” You literally said in your reply to dave (Paraphrasing) “I struggle to understand why other people need to stop their lives for one man” so…no, you don’t have any empathy.
i need you to see how profoundly toxic “pursuing one’s personal goals irrespective of circumstance and obstacle” is without me having to explain it
(when i say “circumstance and obstacle” i’m not talking about shit like time management or competing priorities, either)
You’re putting words in my mouth I didn’t say. But when the goal is the actual reason the team exists, it is not exactly a personal goal anymore, is it?
In the words of Ilya Bryzagalov, “It’s only game. Why you heff to be mad?”
But if you want to double-down on bad viewpoints, please tell us how you felt about the postponement of the 1989 World Series game because of a magnitude 6.9 Earthquake and why they should have kept playing.
You knew you were on a bad hill to die upon, and yet here you are. Please, for the love of everything… stop digging the hole deeper you’ve dug for yourself.
or all the sportsballing that got canceled in the wake of 9/11
aside: their name literally has “gonna get flamed” but are indignant by the pushback as if it were unexpected
Is this a bad take? Yes.
Is everyone reading far too much into this? Yes.
Was Dave publicly shaming you on twitter for this post a good thing? Hell no. Lost a ton of respect for Dave now.
I never thought I’d see the dumbest take on the internet on this site (always thought it would be Twitter) but here we are.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Period.
i need you to see how profoundly toxic “pursuing one’s personal goals irrespective of circumstance and obstacle” is without me having to explain it
(when i say “circumstance and obstacle” i’m not talking about shit like time management or competing priorities, either)